Patrick Gouat Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, Université Paris 13 - CNRS UMR 7153, F Title Individual chemical signature in mound building-mice, Mus spicilegus: from cognitive to functionnal aspects. Abstract Rodents live in a rich olfactory environment and rely on olfaction in order to survive and to increase their reproductive success. In their word of olfactory cues, individual body odours present the particularity to provide by a single stimulus, information about the donor characteristics such as species, identity, age, sex, social status and diet. As a first step, we show that these different types of information may be evaluated separately by a conspecific in mound-building mice, at least with regard to identity and diet. In a second step, we attempt to understand how mice select the information to which they react. Our results suggest that mice may respond to hidden information. We propose, therefore, to develop a new functional approach in order to determine the types of information conveyed by social odours and which are used by mice. CV P. Gouat received his third cycle thesis in Neurobiology and Ethology from the University Claude Bernard-LYON 1 in 1979. The subject of the thesis was the study of precocial sexual behaviour in Guinea pigs. He completed his Doctorat d'Etat (Doctoral Dissertation) in 1988 at the University Claude Bernard-LYON 1, after seven years spent in Algeria as assistant-professor successively in the Batna and the Mostaganem Universities . For his dissertation, P. Gouat worked on the socioecology of three species of gundis (Rodentia, Ctenodactylidae) living in the Sahara desert in Algeria . Since 1989, he is assistant professor at the laboratory of comparative and experimental ethology at the University Paris 13. He has been studying social behaviour of ground-dwelling squirrels living under arid climates in Mexico and in Morocco . Since 1999, his main biological model is the mound-building mouse, Mus spicilegus. In 2004, he became head of the group Social Recognition Process in Mice. The research group is interested in the social regulation of reproduction in monogamous mound-building mice, and in chemical communication in mice. Selected recent publications Columbelli-Negrel, D., and P. Gouat. 2006. Male and female mound-building mice, Mus spicilegus, discriminate dietary and individual odours of conspecifics. Animal Behaviour 72:577-583. pdf Gouat, P., and C. Feron. 2005. Deficit in reproduction in polygynously mated females of the monogamous mound-building mouse Mus spicilegus. Reproduction Fertility and Development 17:617-623. pdf Gouat, P., C. Feron, and S. Demouron. 2003a. Seasonal reproduction and delayed sexual maturity in mound-building mice Mus spicilegus. Reproduction Fertility and Development 15:187-195. pdf Gouat, P., K. Katona, and C. Poteaux. 2003b. Is the socio-spatial distribution of mound-building mice, Mus spicilegus, compatible with a monogamous mating system ? Mammalia 67:15-24. pdf Maslak, S., and P. Gouat. 2002. Short-term contact elicits heterospecific behavioral discrimination of individual odors in mound-building mice (Mus spicilegus). Journal of Comparative Psychology 116:357-362. pdf Institution address Patrick Gouat Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée, Université Paris 13 - CNRS UMR 7153 99 avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément 93430 Villetaneuse, F Phone: 33 1 49 40 32 63 Fax: 33 1 49 40 39 75 Patrick.Gouat@leec.univ-paris13.fr http://www-leec.univ-paris13.fr/