Abstract
Many morphological sex differences in the rat brain have been elucidated. The medial amygdala (MeA) also shows sex differences in size and the number of cells. In this study, we focused on the neuronal activity and investigated the presence of sex differences in the olfactory responses of the MeA. Animal and plant odorants were used, and the response patterns were examined by an extracellular recording system. Odor-responding neurons in the MeA area showed sex differences in which male neurons had higher odor selectivity than those in females. These findings suggest that olfactory signals are differentially processed in the MeA area depending on odor type and gender.
