SCENT COUNTER-MARKS - SPECIALIZED MECHANISMS OF PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE TO INDIVIDUAL ODORS IN GOLDEN-HAMSTERS (MESOCRICETUS-AURATUS)

Scent counter-marking is a wide-spread phenomenon among mammals that i s not well understood. Using a habituation paradigm, it was found that male golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) exposed to partially over lapping scents of 2 females behaved on test trials as if they remember ed the top scent but not the bottom scent. If the 2 females' scents di d not overlap during exposure trials, males remembered both of them. T hus, if 2 individual scents partially overlap, hamsters (a) perceive w hich of the 2 scents was deposited most recently and (b) either rememb er the top scent and forget the bottom scent or attach greater signifi cance to the top scent. These results indicate the existence of specia lized perceptual and cognitive or motivational mechanisms that are use d for interpretation and response to complex arrays of social odors.