Experience Modifies Olfactory Acuity: Acetylcholine-Dependent Learning Decreases Behavioral Generalization between Similar Odorants

Perceptual learning has been demonstrated in several thalamocortical sensory systems wherein experience enhances sensory acuity for trained stimuli. This perceptual learning is believed to be dependent on changes in sensory cortical receptive fields. Sensory experience and learning also modifies receptive fields and neural response patterns in the mammalian olfactory system; however, to date there has been little reported evidence of learned changes in behavioral olfactory acuity. The present report used a bradycardial orienting response and cross-habituation paradigm that allowed assessment of behavioral discrimination of nearly novel odorants, and then used the same paradigm to examine odorant discrimination after associative olfactory conditioning with similar or dissimilar odorants. The results demonstrate that associative conditioning can enhance olfactory acuity for odors that are the same as or similar to the learned odorant, but not for odors dissimilar to the learned odorant. Furthermore, scopolamine injected before associative conditioning can block the acquisition of this learned enhancement in olfactory acuity. These results could have important implications for mechanisms of olfactory perception and memory, as well as for correlating behavioral olfactory acuity with observed spatial representations of odorant features in the olfactory system.