Quaranta Angelo, d'Ingeo Serenella, Siniscalchi Marcello
Department of Veterinary Medicine, Section of Animal Physiology and Behaviour, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", 70121 Bari, Italy.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Jul 23;10(8):1249. doi: 10.3390/ani10081249.
The ability of odors to spontaneously trigger specific memories has been widely demonstrated in humans. Although increasing evidence support the role of olfaction on dogs' emotions and cognitive processes, very little research has been conducted on its relationship with memory in this species. The present study aimed at investigating the role of olfaction in the recall of detailed memories originally formed in the presence of a specific odor (i.e., vanilla). To test this, three groups of participants were trained with the same spatial learning task while a specific odor (i.e., vanilla) was dispersed in the testing room. Subjects were then divided in three experimental groups and after 24 h delay, they were presented with the same spatial task. The first group (Group 1) performed the task in the presence of a novel odor (i.e., control), whereas the second (Group 2) and the third group (Group 3) carried out the test in the presence of the vanilla odor and no odor (Group 3), respectively. After a brief delay, the test was presented again to the three groups of dogs: subjects of Group 1 were now tested in the presence of the vanilla odor, whereas the Group 2 was tested with the control odor. The Group 3 received no odor in both tests. A significant improvement of dogs' performance was registered in the control-vanilla odors condition (Group 1), suggesting that the exposure to the odor presented at the encoding time would prompt the recall of spatial memories in dogs.
气味自发触发特定记忆的能力在人类中已得到广泛证实。尽管越来越多的证据支持嗅觉在狗的情绪和认知过程中的作用，但关于嗅觉与该物种记忆之间关系的研究却很少。本研究旨在调查嗅觉在回忆最初在特定气味（即香草味）存在时形成的详细记忆中的作用。为了验证这一点，三组参与者在执行相同的空间学习任务时，测试室中散布着一种特定气味（即香草味）。然后将受试者分为三个实验组，在延迟24小时后，他们再次接受相同的空间任务。第一组（第1组）在有新气味（即对照）的情况下执行任务，而第二组（第2组）和第三组（第3组）分别在有香草味和无气味（第3组）的情况下进行测试。经过短暂延迟后，再次对三组狗进行测试：第1组的受试者现在在有香草味的情况下进行测试，而第2组则用对照气味进行测试。第3组在两次测试中都没有闻到气味。在对照 - 香草味条件下（第1组），狗的表现有显著改善，这表明在编码时接触到的气味会促使狗回忆起空间记忆。
