ABSTRACT
The rat olfactory system comprises a set of structures well-suited to the study of learning and memory. This chapter discusses the study of olfactory processing in the rat and the role it plays in learning, memory, and behavior. In particular, this chapter describes the privileged role olfaction appears to hold for rats, briefly reviews the system of structures involved in processing olfactory information, and then focuses on the use of olfaction within a subset of these structures as a tool for the study of learning and behavior. This discussion emphasizes the use of olfaction to
study prefrontal function in rats, stressing parallels with prefrontal function in other species, and in the process describing in detail the methods used in several experiments.
It has been argued that odor-based information plays a special role in rat cognition.
