‘ We humans use our sense of smell more than we think. It’ s more unconscious, and a little bit taboo – we are not very comfortable with it – but there is more and more evidence that smell is important in social behaviours.’
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MICE
Dr Roux is principal investigator of sociOlfa, a project looking at how a mouse brain processes chemosignals when it encounters a new individual, and then uses them to create memories.
‘ Mice interact a lot by smelling the different body parts of other mice, and the nature of the smell will carry rich information( such as) the social status of the other individual,’ said Dr Roux.
Animals use scent to mark – and detect – territory. In experimental conditions, if two mice fight, the one that wins will mark an area with its scent using urine. The subordinate one will also release a scent but only in one spot.
‘ A dominant mouse will have specific molecules to indicate they are dominant ones. And a sick animal will have signs of sickness within this odour mixture,’ she said.
Female mice use scent to select a mate – usually preferring an unfamiliar male possibly because it promotes genetic diversity, says Dr Roux.
‘ For me it’ s a( form of) language. It’ s a way to communicate important information within a social group, important to maintain the hierarchy within the group, and it’ s very important for reproduction,’ said Dr Roux.
Studying how mouse brains process chemosignals will help researchers understand general principles of how their brains form social memories, says Dr Roux.
And the results may be relevant in people too. Understanding how the mouse brain processes chemosignals during social interactions and when forming memories of an individual could help scientists identify what happens when these functions go wrong- for example, in mouse models of autism.
Eventually this could also help scientists understand what happens in people whose ability to recognise others is impaired – for example those with Alzheimer’ s – or those who have difficulties with social interactions caused by autism.
‘ We humans use our sense of smell more than we think. It’ s more unconscious, and a little bit taboo – we are not very comfortable with it – but there is more and more evidence that smell is important in social behaviours.’
~ Dr Roux.
This article was originally published in: Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine. Read the original article.