Responses of SMCs to Novel Rewarded Odors A and AB in the Multiple S+ Control Task Do Not Diverge between A and AB

<div><p>(A) PSTH of a multiunit response to odor A (left) and AB (right) both of which are rewarded. This multiunit responds to both odors A and AB with a significant excitatory response.</p> <p>(B) PSTH of the same unit responding to the unrewarded odor C (cumin aldehyde) that the animals were familiar with as an unreinforced stimulus prior to start of the task. This unit displays a significant inhibitory response to odor C. There are twice as many trials of odor C compared to A and AB per block because the ratio of rewarded to unrewarded odors remains at 50% in this task. For every ten trials of odor A or Odor AB there are 20 trials of odor C.</p> <p>(C) Behavior plot corresponding to the raster shown in (A) and (B). It should be noted that the animal performs at criterion from the first block because although odors A and AB are novel, odor C has an overtrained association as the unrewarded stimulus.</p> <p>(D) Summary of all experiments consisting of 200 units from six animals and 12 different task sessions. It should be recognized that the green pie denoting units divergent in A versus AB responses do not exist in this behavior. The added blue pie piece signifies the percent of total units that had a divergent response between either A or AB and odor C. This value did not significantly vary through the course of the task (first, best, and last).</p>