Laska M, Seibt A, Weber A
Department of Medical Psychology, University of Munich Medical School, Goethestrabetae 31, D-80336 Munich, Germany.
Chem Senses. 2000 Feb;25(1):47-53. doi: 10.1093/chemse/25.1.47.
Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of three squirrel monkeys to nine odorants representing different chemical classes as well as members of a homologous series of substances was investigated. The animals significantly discriminated dilutions as low as 1:10,000 n-propionic acid, 1:30,000 n-butanoic acid and n-pentanoic acid, 1:100,000 n-hexanoic acid, 1:1Mio n-heptanoic acid, 1:30, 000 1-pentanol, 1:300,000 1,8-cineole, 1:1Mio n-heptanal and 1:30Mio amyl acetate from the near-odorless solvent, with single individuals scoring even slightly better. The results showed (i) the squirrel monkey to have an unexpectedly high olfactory sensitivity, which for some substances matches or even is better than that of species such as the rat or the dog, and (ii) a significant negative correlation between perceptibility in terms of olfactory detection thresholds and carbon chain length of carboxylic acids. These findings support the assumptions that olfaction may play a significant and hitherto underestimated role in the regulation of primate behavior, and that the concept of primates as primarily visual and 'microsmatic' animals needs to be revised.
采用条件反射范式，研究了三只松鼠猴对代表不同化学类别以及同系物系列成员的九种气味剂的嗅觉敏感性。这些动物能够显著区分低至1:10000的正丙酸、1:30000的正丁酸和正戊酸、1:100000的正己酸、1:1000000的正庚酸、1:30000的1-戊醇、1:300000的1,8-桉叶素、1:1000000的正庚醛以及1:30000000的乙酸戊酯与几乎无味的溶剂，个别个体的表现甚至略好。结果表明：（i）松鼠猴具有出乎意料的高嗅觉敏感性，对于某些物质，其嗅觉敏感性与大鼠或狗等物种相当甚至更好；（ii）嗅觉检测阈值方面的可感知性与羧酸的碳链长度之间存在显著的负相关。这些发现支持了以下假设：嗅觉可能在灵长类动物行为调节中发挥重要且迄今被低估的作用，并且需要修正灵长类动物主要是视觉动物和“嗅觉不灵敏”动物的概念。
