PMID- 25145699
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20150223
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1940-087X (Electronic)
IS  - 1940-087X (Linking)
IP  - 90
DP  - 2014 Aug 4
TI  - Ex vivo preparations of the intact vomeronasal organ and accessory olfactory 
      bulb.
PG  - e51813
LID - 10.3791/51813 [doi]
LID - 51813
AB  - The mouse accessory olfactory system (AOS) is a specialized sensory pathway for 
      detecting nonvolatile social odors, pheromones, and kairomones. The first neural 
      circuit in the AOS pathway, called the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), plays an 
      important role in establishing sex-typical behaviors such as territorial 
      aggression and mating. This small (<1 mm(3)) circuit possesses the capacity to 
      distinguish unique behavioral states, such as sex, strain, and stress from 
      chemosensory cues in the secretions and excretions of conspecifics. While the 
      compact organization of this system presents unique opportunities for recording 
      from large portions of the circuit simultaneously, investigation of sensory 
      processing in the AOB remains challenging, largely due to its experimentally 
      disadvantageous location in the brain. Here, we demonstrate a multi-stage 
      dissection that removes the intact AOB inside a single hemisphere of the anterior 
      mouse skull, leaving connections to both the peripheral vomeronasal sensory 
      neurons (VSNs) and local neuronal circuitry intact. The procedure exposes the AOB 
      surface to direct visual inspection, facilitating electrophysiological and 
      optical recordings from AOB circuit elements in the absence of anesthetics. Upon 
      inserting a thin cannula into the vomeronasal organ (VNO), which houses the VSNs, 
      one can directly expose the periphery to social odors and pheromones while 
      recording downstream activity in the AOB. This procedure enables controlled 
      inquiries into AOS information processing, which can shed light on mechanisms 
      linking pheromone exposure to changes in behavior.
FAU - Doyle, Wayne I
AU  - Doyle WI
AD  - Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center.
FAU - Hammen, Gary F
AU  - Hammen GF
AD  - Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis.
FAU - Meeks, Julian P
AU  - Meeks JP
AD  - Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center; 
      Julian.Meeks@utsouthwestern.edu.
LA  - eng
GR  - F30 DC011673/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R00 DC011780/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Video-Audio Media
DEP - 20140804
PL  - United States
TA  - J Vis Exp
JT  - Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE
JID - 101313252
RN  - 0 (Pheromones)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Electrophysiological Phenomena
MH  - Female
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred BALB C
MH  - Odorants
MH  - Olfactory Bulb/*anatomy & histology/*physiology/surgery
MH  - Pheromones/physiology
MH  - Vomeronasal Organ/*anatomy & histology/*physiology/surgery
PMC - PMC4299356
EDAT- 2014/08/26 06:00
MHDA- 2015/02/24 06:00
PMCR- 2015/08/04
CRDT- 2014/08/23 06:00
PHST- 2014/08/23 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/08/26 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2015/02/24 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2015/08/04 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 51813 [pii]
AID - 10.3791/51813 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - J Vis Exp. 2014 Aug 4;(90):e51813. doi: 10.3791/51813.