Animals can assign novel odours to a known category

Abstract The ability to identify a novel stimulus as a member of a known category allows an organism to respond appropriately towards it. Categorisation is thus a fundamental component of cognition and an essential tool for processing and responding to unknown stimuli. Therefore, one might expect to...

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Autores principales:	Hannah F. Wright, Anna Wilkinson, Ruth S. Croxton, Deanna K. Graham, Rebecca C. Harding, Hayley L. Hodkinson, Benjamin Keep, Nina R. Cracknell, Helen E. Zulch
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f1b2113412d345a692fea5eab913d43d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f1b2113412d345a692fea5eab913d43d2021-12-02T12:30:19ZAnimals can assign novel odours to a known category10.1038/s41598-017-09454-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/f1b2113412d345a692fea5eab913d43d2017-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-09454-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The ability to identify a novel stimulus as a member of a known category allows an organism to respond appropriately towards it. Categorisation is thus a fundamental component of cognition and an essential tool for processing and responding to unknown stimuli. Therefore, one might expect to observe it throughout the animal kingdom and across sensory domains. There is much evidence of visual categorisation in non-human animals, but we currently know little about this process in other modalities. In this experiment, we investigated categorisation in the olfactory domain. Dogs were trained to discriminate between 40 odours; the presence or absence of accelerants formed the categorical rule. Those in the experimental group were rewarded for responding to substrates with accelerants (either burnt or un-burnt) and inhibit responses to the same substrates (either burnt or un-burnt) without accelerants (S+ counterbalanced). The pseudocategory control group was trained on the same stimuli without the categorical rule. The experimental group learned the discrimination and animals were able to generalise to novel stimuli from the same category. None of the control animals were able to learn the discrimination within the maximum number of trials. This study provides the first evidence that non-human animals can learn to categorise non-biologically relevant odour information.Hannah F. WrightAnna WilkinsonRuth S. CroxtonDeanna K. GrahamRebecca C. HardingHayley L. HodkinsonBenjamin KeepNina R. CracknellHelen E. ZulchNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-6 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Hannah F. Wright Anna Wilkinson Ruth S. Croxton Deanna K. Graham Rebecca C. Harding Hayley L. Hodkinson Benjamin Keep Nina R. Cracknell Helen E. Zulch Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
description	Abstract The ability to identify a novel stimulus as a member of a known category allows an organism to respond appropriately towards it. Categorisation is thus a fundamental component of cognition and an essential tool for processing and responding to unknown stimuli. Therefore, one might expect to observe it throughout the animal kingdom and across sensory domains. There is much evidence of visual categorisation in non-human animals, but we currently know little about this process in other modalities. In this experiment, we investigated categorisation in the olfactory domain. Dogs were trained to discriminate between 40 odours; the presence or absence of accelerants formed the categorical rule. Those in the experimental group were rewarded for responding to substrates with accelerants (either burnt or un-burnt) and inhibit responses to the same substrates (either burnt or un-burnt) without accelerants (S+ counterbalanced). The pseudocategory control group was trained on the same stimuli without the categorical rule. The experimental group learned the discrimination and animals were able to generalise to novel stimuli from the same category. None of the control animals were able to learn the discrimination within the maximum number of trials. This study provides the first evidence that non-human animals can learn to categorise non-biologically relevant odour information.
format	article
author	Hannah F. Wright Anna Wilkinson Ruth S. Croxton Deanna K. Graham Rebecca C. Harding Hayley L. Hodkinson Benjamin Keep Nina R. Cracknell Helen E. Zulch
author_facet	Hannah F. Wright Anna Wilkinson Ruth S. Croxton Deanna K. Graham Rebecca C. Harding Hayley L. Hodkinson Benjamin Keep Nina R. Cracknell Helen E. Zulch
author_sort	Hannah F. Wright
title	Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
title_short	Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
title_full	Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
title_fullStr	Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
title_full_unstemmed	Animals can assign novel odours to a known category
title_sort	animals can assign novel odours to a known category
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/f1b2113412d345a692fea5eab913d43d
work_keys_str_mv	AT hannahfwright animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT annawilkinson animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT ruthscroxton animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT deannakgraham animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT rebeccacharding animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT hayleylhodkinson animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT benjaminkeep animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT ninarcracknell animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory AT helenezulch animalscanassignnovelodourstoaknowncategory
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Animals can assign novel odours to a known category

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