Establishment and maintenance of preference for natural and artificial olfactory stimuli in juvenile rats

The role of sensory-affective bias and of two types of experience (simple exposure to an odor and exposure to an odor in association with conspecifics) in the establishment and maintenance of preference of rat pups for odorants was investigated. (a) Simple exposure of pups to a mildly aversive odorant (peppermint extract) from birth to 21 days of age was sufficient to establish a preference for that odorant in 21-day-olds as strong as their …