Examining the role of olfaction in dietary choice

• Published in: Cell reports (Cambridge) 2021-02, Vol.34 (7), p.108755-108755, Article 108755
• Main Authors: Boone, Montana H., Liang-Guallpa, Jing, Krashes, Michael J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; anosmia; devaluation; Diet, High-Fat - adverse effects; Food Preferences - physiology; high-fat diet; Mice; obesity; Obesity - physiopathology; olfaction; Smell - physiology
• ISSN: 2211-1247; 2211-1247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108755

Obesity is frequently caused by calorie-rich dietary choices across the animal kingdom. As prandial preference toward a high-fat diet develops in mice, an anti-preference or devaluation of a nutritionally balanced but less palatable standard chow diet occurs concomitantly. Although mechanistic insights underlying devaluation have been observed physiologically in the brain, it is unclear how peripheral sensory processing affects food choice. Because olfactory cues and odor perception help coordinate food preference and intake, we determine the role of smell in the targeted consumption of a high-fat diet and simultaneous devaluation of a standard chow diet. Using inaccessible food and loss-of-function manipulations, we find that olfactory information is neither sufficient nor necessary for both the acute and chronic selection of high-fat diet and coincident diminished value of standard diet. This work suggests alternative means are behind the immediate and sustained consumption of high-fat diet and concurrent standard diet devaluation. [Display omitted] •Olfactory HFD perception alone does not alter home-cage feeding or induce SD devaluation•Prior HFD exposure does not enhance salience of HFD olfactory cues•Olfaction is not required for home-cage HFD preference or SD devaluation•Intact olfaction is not necessary for devaluation of SD during periods of hunger Olfaction is considered integral to food choice and preference formation. Boone et al. use a behavioral approach to determine the salience of olfactory cues in diet selection. They find that olfaction is neither sufficient nor required for both high-fat-diet preference and standard diet devaluation.