Olfactory Sensitivity for Alkylpyrazines-A Comparative Study in CD-1 Mice and Spider Monkeys

Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of four CD-1 mice for six alkylpyrazines was investigated. With all six stimuli, the animals discriminated concentrations <= 0.1 ppm (parts per million) from the odorless solvent, and with three of the six stimuli the animals were even able to detect concentrations <= 0.1 ppb (parts per billion). Four spider monkeys tested in parallel were found to detect five of the same six stimuli at concentrations <1 ppm and with one stimulus they were able to discriminate concentrations <1 ppb from the solvent. The results showed CD-1 mice to be more sensitive than spider monkeys with five of the six alkylpyrazines tested. There was a significant positive correlation between sensitivity and the number of alkyl groups attached to the pyrazine (Pyr) ring in both species. A comparison of the detection thresholds obtained here to those obtained in human subjects suggests that neither the number of functional olfactory receptor genes nor the absolute or the relative size of the olfactory bulbs reliably predict a species' olfactory sensitivity. These threshold data may provide useful information for the choice of adequate stimulus concentrations in electrophysiological or imaging studies of the olfactory system or investigations of the discriminative abilities of mice and spider monkeys. J. Exp. Zool. 311A: 278-288, 2009. (C) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.