Influence of adult castration on the olfactory sensitivity of the male rat: a signal detection analysis.

The effect of adult castration on the male rat's ability to detect ethyl acetate odor was measured with high-precision olfactometry and a go-no-go signal detection task. Castration was found to significantly mitigate the tendency observed in sham castrates to improve detection performance across an 18-week postoperative test period. No significant castration-related alterations on the responsivity or S+ response latency measures were observed. These findings indicate that castration influences the male rat's ability to improve odor detection performance over time, although it is not known whether this effect is attributable to sensory or to memory mechanisms.