Noradrenergic modulation in the olfactory bulb influences spontaneous and reward‐motivated discrimination, but not the formation of habituation memory

The mammalian main olfactory bulb receives a significant noradrenergic input from the locus coeruleus. Norepinephrine is involved in acquisition of conditioned odor preferences in neonatal animals and in some species‐specific odor dependent behaviors. Thus far, the role of norepinephrine in odor processing in adult rats remains less studied. We tested the role of noradrenergic modulation in the olfactory bulb of cannulated rats by bilateral injections of vehicle (6 µL saline), the α noradrenergic receptor antagonist phentolamine (3.15 or 10 m m ), the β noradrenergic receptor antagonist alprenolol (12 or 120 m m ), the α1 noradrenergic receptor antagonist prazosin (1 or 10 −2  m m ) and the α2 noradrenergic receptor antagonist yohimbine (2 or 0.02 m m ) 20 min before two different behavioral tasks. We found that local blockade of noradrenergic receptors in the olfactory bulb did not affect the formation of habituation memory to an odorant over sequential presentations separated by 5‐min intertrial intervals. However, spontaneous discrimination between chemically related odorants was impaired when noradrenergic receptors, and in particular α1 receptors, were blocked by local antagonist infusion into the olfactory bulb. By contrast, discrimination was improved when β receptors were blocked. These results show that although the formation of a habituation memory to odorants is not affected by noradrenergic modulation, the specificity of this memory is affected. In contrast, reward‐motivated discrimination learning was not impaired, but slowed down in rats in which both α and β receptors had been blocked.