Abstract
It has been previously shown that the most profound elicitor of urinary marking in male mice is biological or physical novelty. In the present study the frequency of urinary marking by anosmic or control males was tested when either alone or in the presence of a female. Anosmia was induced by perfusing the nasal epithelium with zinc sulfate solution and verified by a conditioned response to an odor. Marking rates of anosmic males were significantly lower in both test situations. The somewhat surprising depression of marking among isolated, anosmic males strongly suggests that olfaction is the primary modality for detecting even nonbiological novelty. A second experiment revealed that the depression of marking in anosmic males was not due solely to a reduction of locomotor activity.
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