PMC

Bulbectomized mice were unable to perform the discrimination task on two S+ gustometer channels presenting only the odor, but could detect the stimulus when admixed with 0.1M sucrose. * p<0.0001 (unpaired t-test for performance >50%). Mouse labels: ge: GCaMP3-EMX; go: GCaMP2-OMP.

A flow study was performed for particles at the tip of one of the lick spout tubes (in the center of the surrounding vacuum tube) and particles at the nares of a mouse model. The vacuum (upper left, red) generates an airflow preventing trajectories between the nares (inhaling, conservatively at the maximum rate reported for rats, red) and the lick spout.

Graph showing average (±SEM) and individual performance accuracy of 6 mice discriminating between a range of concentrations of licked retronasal amyl acetate (AA) and water. ** p< 10^-7, * p<0.0002, ns not significant (unpaired t-test for performance >50%). Mouse labels: ge: GCaMP3-EMX; go: GCaMP2-OMP.

One trial of OB retronasal responses to 0.67% EB is shown for each of 3 GCAMP3-EMX mice (ge3, 4 and 5). Left: evoked maps and ROIs. Grey-scaling was applied between indicated minimum and maximum %ΔF/F. The OBs rostro-caudal orientation is bottom-top. Right: time-traces of ROIs, licking (blue), licked S+ odor valve open time (yellow) and water reward valve open time (pink). The two vertical lines indicate the center of the reference frames and response frames on which the response maps are based. Calibration bar: 10% ΔF/F.