Protocol for Quantifying the Odor Detection Threshold of Mice

Perceptual measures of odor threshold provide a mechanism to compare sensitivity across species and to gauge stimulus concentrations for functional experiments. Here, we present a protocol to precisely quantify the odor detection threshold of mice. We describe the construction of a head-fixed operant conditioning behavioral rig and provide details of the training and testing procedures. This approach can be used to compare the sensitivity of mice across odorants and to quantify detection differences associated with genetic mutations or pharmacological manipulations.