Associative Memory Function in Piriform (Olfactory) Cortex: Computational Modeling and Neuropharmacology

A wide range of mammalian behaviors require the recognition of odors. Although the recognition of some olfactory cues may be innate, in many instances animals are capable of learning new odors specific to an individual or object (Halpin 1980; Leon 1987). Rats, for example, display one trial learning in olfactory discrimination tasks (Slotnick and Katz 1974), translating a learning set between different olfactory stimuli with a flexibility usually only seen in the visual behavior of primates. Of course, rats show a preference for using olfactory cues (Nigrosh et al. 1975), but even visually oriented primates are capable of learning subtle discriminations between olfactory stimuli (Takagi 1979; Rabin and Cain 1989).