Detection and discrimination of carvone enantiomers in rats with olfactory bulb lesions.

Rats with lesions of dorsal and dorsolateral bulbar sites known to be differentially responsive to carvone enantiomers were tested for their ability to detect (+)-carvone, to discriminate between (+)-carvone from (-)-carvone, and to discriminate (+)-carvone from mixtures of both enantiomers after they had been pre-trained or not pre-trained on these tasks prior to surgery. In postoperative tests, rats pre-trained on the enantiomer discrimination problems made somewhat fewer errors than those not pre-trained, but experimental rats performed as well as controls (those that had one intact olfactory bulb) within both conditions and on each task. These results indicate that removal of most bulbar sites known to be differentially responsive to carvone enantiomers and the consequent disruption of normal patterns of bulbar input produced in response to carvones are largely without effect on the ability of rats to discriminate between these odors.