Batsell W R, Ludvigson H W, Kunko P M
Texas Christian University.
J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 1990 Apr;16(2):193-9.
Rats running in a runway emit discriminable odors when encountering reward (R) or nonreward (N) goal events, and subsequent rats use these odors as discriminative stimuli to alter their approach speeds. In the present studies, a third goal event, aversively conditioned denatonium saccharide (A), was introduced. In Experiment 1, rats evidently emitted an odor when encountering the A goal event, because in the presence of this A odor subsequent conspecifics slowed their approach to the goal, much like their behavior on N trials. In Experiment 2, when N odor signaled R goal events and A odor signaled A goal events, rats approached quickly to N but slowly to A, indicating that they could discriminate N and A odors at the given concentrations. These studies indicate that rats emit an odor when confronted with a signal of impending illness and that this odor seems readily discriminable from R and N odors.
在跑道上奔跑的大鼠在遇到奖励（R）或无奖励（N）目标事件时会散发出可辨别的气味，随后的大鼠会将这些气味用作辨别性刺激来改变它们的接近速度。在本研究中，引入了第三个目标事件，即厌恶性条件刺激的糖精钠（A）。在实验1中，大鼠在遇到A目标事件时明显散发出一种气味，因为在这种A气味存在的情况下，随后的同种个体接近目标的速度减慢，这与它们在N试验中的行为非常相似。在实验2中，当N气味表示R目标事件而A气味表示A目标事件时，大鼠迅速接近N但缓慢接近A，表明它们能够在给定浓度下区分N和A气味。这些研究表明，大鼠在面对即将生病的信号时会散发出一种气味，而且这种气味似乎很容易与R和N气味区分开来。
