In goldfish the qualitative discriminative ability for odors rapidly returns after bilateral nerve axotomy and lateral olfactory tract transection.

After amino acid discrimination training (Arg vs. Gln) in 5 groups of 2 fish the olfactory nerves and in 5 groups the lateral olfactory tracts were intracranially and bilaterally dissected. Immediately after this operation both groups of fish were unable to discriminate concentration differences and contaminated stimuli. Two weeks after the operation, following functional regeneration, both groups again were able to discriminate stimulus concentration differences and contaminations as they did before the operation. Therefore functional regeneration of the olfactory nerves (peripheral regeneration) and lateral olfactory subtracts (central regeneration) is highly specific.