Respiratory airflow pattern at the rat's snout and an hypothesis regarding its role in olfaction.

Respiratory airflow outside the external nares of the rat was mapped by monitoring temperature fluctuations with a thermistor and simultaneous piezoelectric monitoring of respiration-associated chestwall movement. The results demonstrated that both exhalation and inhalation airflow were directed laterally. Relatively little air exchange occurred anterior to the nares. These results suggest that the two nares of the rat take independent, bilateral samples of the odor environment. Combined with recent descriptions of laterally specific, spatial receptive fields in piriform cortical neurons, an hypothesis is outlined describing a mechanism of odor orientation in the rat involving comparisons of timing or intensity of bilateral odor stimulation.