Cheal M L, Klestzick J, Domesick V B
J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1982 Feb;96(1):47-60. doi: 10.1037/h0077854.
Investigation of and habituation to novel stimuli are part of exploratory behavior of rodents. They are necessary for assessing the environment in seeking food and sexual partners and in avoiding predators. Male and female gerbils were tested in the stimulus-elicited investigation paradigm in order to address several questions on three issues: (a) Gerbils initially showed preferences for odors of strange male bedding and for odors of home cage bedding and then habituated. There was no preference between these two odors, although they could be discriminated. The complex odor stimulus elicited more response than any of the components tested. (b) Memory of an object or of an odor was demonstrated up to 4 wk later. (c) Sensory deprivation by blinding, anosmizing, or removing somatosensation of the upper snout made only small differences in investigation. The removal of any two of these sensory inputs produced more interference with the response, but all of the gerbils investigated the stimulus. It is concluded that attention to novelty and habituation after repeated exposure are very robust behaviors and are mediated through multiple sensory channels.
对新异刺激的探究和习惯化是啮齿动物探索行为的一部分。它们对于在寻找食物、性伴侣以及躲避捕食者时评估环境是必要的。为了解决关于三个问题的几个疑问，对雄性和雌性沙鼠进行了刺激引发的探究范式测试：(a) 沙鼠最初表现出对陌生雄性垫料气味和笼内垫料气味的偏好，然后出现习惯化。尽管这两种气味可以被区分，但它们之间没有偏好。复杂气味刺激比所测试的任何成分引发的反应都更多。(b) 在长达4周后仍能证明对物体或气味的记忆。(c) 通过致盲、嗅觉缺失或去除上鼻的躯体感觉进行感觉剥夺，在探究方面仅产生微小差异。去除这两种感觉输入中的任何两种对反应产生的干扰更大，但所有沙鼠都对刺激进行了探究。得出的结论是，对新奇事物的关注和重复暴露后的习惯化是非常稳固的行为，并且是通过多种感觉通道介导的。
