Posted on: 02 March, 2017
Author: Alexander P
Two additional problems leading to still further complexity in mammals should be mentioned at this time. Both stem from the fact that many mammals rely heavily on a combination of senses in their cont... Two additional problems leading to still further complexity in mammals should be mentioned at this time. Both stem from the fact that many mammals rely heavily on a combination of senses in their continual assessment of their surroundings. Thus olfactory cues are usually not used exclusively as determinants of a particular behavioral response and, in addition, an exceedingly large variety of olfactory cues used by mammals do not fit the restricted concept of specific allomones or pheromones according to http://hartch25.weebly.com/our-marketing-blog/pheromone-principles As an example of the first of these problems, rats are known to make strong use of olfactory cues during their prcopulatory sexual behavior, yet loss of their sense of smell usually results in no absence of this behavior, only a stronger dependence on visual and tactile cues. As another example, boar odor functions to arouse an estrous sow and result in her adoption of a mating posture; 90%will do so given the sound and smell of a boar and the pressure of a hand1er’s hand, all three factors acting in a more or less additive fashion to reach that figure with sound being of less importance than pressure or smell (Signoret and Du Buisson 1961). Again, the paramount rule in mammals would seem to be the simultaneous use of many sensory systems to accomplish a particular behavioral task. As an example of the "second problem mentioned above, mice can be trained to discriminate between two other mice of the same sex, age, and highly inbred strain (Bowers and Alexander 1967). It is difficult to visualize the use of anything other than the broadest possible spectrum of individual odors in this phenomenon and, hence, unreasonable either to apply the strict concept of a pheromone or attempt its isolation in such a situation. Because of the problems discussed above, the term pheromone has probably been over-used by investigators working with mammals. Invocation of the concept of a pheromone would seem useful only where natural functions are obvious and where it seems reasonable to predict isolation, identification, and synthesis of a discrete compound or, at the most, a restricted mixture of odors. The specic volatile signals are often used only in conjunction with other sensory activity; the ultimate behavioral or physiological response being determined only after integration of all possible sensory information. As a summary of all that has been said so far concerning generalities and prob-ems, then: a) mammals make heavy use of olfactory cues, most often in conjunction with other sensory modalities; b) some of these cues satisfy a restricted concept of phermonal communication and, furthermore, can be functionally dichotomized with relative ease into priming or signalling categories; and finally c) social experience adds an important dimension of variability to these behavioral systems. The purpose of the rest of this chapter is to discuss in a more detailed fashion the role of pheromones in mammalian, particularly rodent, reproductive physiology and behavior. As a nal comment before undertaking this discussion, one could say that, while the eld of mammalian pheromones is decidedly under- researched, it is just as decidedly over-reviewed. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Alexander P is a blogger that studies human pheromones.