Context-Dependent Odor Learning Requires the Anterior Olfactory Nucleus

Learning to associate the context in which a stimulus occurs is an important aspect of animal learning. We propose that the association of an olfactory stimulus with its multisensory context is mediated by projections from ventral hippocampus (vHC) networks to the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON). U...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2020-08, Vol.134 (4), p.332-343
Main Authors: Levinson, Max, Kolenda, Jacob P., Alexandrou, Gabriella J., Escanilla, Olga, Cleland, Thomas A., Smith, David M., Linster, Christiane
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Learning
Animals
Brain - physiology
Brain Lesions (Experimental)
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Contextual Associations
Cues
Discrimination Learning
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - physiology
Information processing
Learning - physiology
Lesions
Male
Odorants
Olfaction
Olfactory bulb
Olfactory Bulb - physiology
Olfactory Cortex - metabolism
Olfactory Cortex - physiology
Olfactory discrimination learning
Olfactory Pathways - physiology
Olfactory Perception
Olfactory Perception - physiology
Olfactory Stimulation
Olfactory stimuli
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Sensory integration
Smell
Smell - physiology
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Summary:Learning to associate the context in which a stimulus occurs is an important aspect of animal learning. We propose that the association of an olfactory stimulus with its multisensory context is mediated by projections from ventral hippocampus (vHC) networks to the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON). Using a contextually cued olfactory discrimination task, rats were trained to associate 2 olfactory stimuli with different responses depending on visuospatial context. Temporary lesions of the AON or vHC impaired performance on this task. In contrast, such lesions did not impair performance on a noncontextual olfactory discrimination task. Moreover, vHC lesions also impaired performance on an analogous contextually cued texture discrimination task, whereas AON lesions affected only olfactory contextual associations. We describe a distinct role for the AON in olfactory processing and conclude that early olfactory networks such as the olfactory bulb and AON function as multimodal integration networks rather than processing olfactory signals exclusively.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/bne0000371