Abstract
The present study examined whether a new habituation-dishabituation paradigm using multiple habituation-donors can detect the ability to discriminate sexual activeness of males by female rats. All females were ovariectomized and chronically treated with estradiol benzoate. During the habituation trials, half of the females were exposed to a urine odor obtained from a single castrated male (the single donor group), and the other half were exposed to 4 different urine odors collected from 4 different castrated males (the multiple donor group). After the habituation trials, half of each group was tested with a urine odor of a novel intact male, and the other half with that of a novel castrated male. Females exposed to odor of single males showed a significant increase in investigation time to the test-donor odor, irrespective of donors' sexual activeness. In contrast, females habituated to odors of multiple males showed dishabituation specific to odor of intact test males. These results suggest that the habituation-dishabituation paradigm with multiple donors should be useful for evaluating the discrimination ability of sexual odors by rats.
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