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Identification of a pheromone that increases anxiety in rats

2014; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 111; Issue: 52 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1414710112

1091-6490

Hideaki Inagaki, Yasushi Kiyokawa, Shigeyuki Tamogami, Hidenori Watanabe, Yukari Takeuchi, Yuji Mori,

Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

Significance Animals communicate with other members of the same species by using pheromones. Rats release a specific odor into the air when they are stressed. Because this stress-related odor increases anxiety in the other rats, it is likely that there are some anxiogenic molecules in this odor. In this study, we have tried to identify these molecules. We discovered that a combination of two molecules, 4-methylpentanal and hexanal, increased anxiety in rats. We concluded that the mixture is a pheromone in rats that can increase anxiety in conspecifics. Furthermore, we proposed that the neural circuit relating to anxiety was only activated when the two molecules were simultaneously perceived by two separate olfactory systems.