Detection and discrimination of propionic acid after removal of its 2-DG identified major focus in the olfactory bulb: a psychophysical analysis.

Prior 2-deoxyglucose and c-fos studies have demonstrated increased metabolic activity in a rostral dorsomedial area of the olfactory bulb in response to the vapor of propionic acid. We used psychophysical tests to assess the effect of removing this area of the bulb on odor sensitivity and discrimination. Normal rats, those with lesions of the rostral dorsomedial bulb or with control lesions of the lateral olfactory bulb were tested for propionic acid absolute detection and intensity difference thresholds and ability to discriminate propionic acid from other odors. There were no differences among groups for absolute or intensity difference threshold or on simple 2-odor discrimination tests but both groups with bulbar lesions made more errors than controls on a relatively difficult odor-mixture task. The results demonstrate that removal of an area of the bulb identified as responsive to propionic acid is essentially without effect on sensitivity to that odor or ability to discriminate it from other odors.