. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2006 May 6.

Published in final edited form as: J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2004 Dec;59(12):1251–1260. doi: 10.1093/gerona/59.12.1251

Table 1.

Sensory responses of wildtype animals during aging

	Young adult (days 2-3)	Aged adult (day 8)
Gentle touch ^†	92 ± 2.5	96 ± 1.5
Aversive odor
Time to stop (sec.) ^§
100 % octanol	2.4 ± 0.7	4.1 ± 0.6^**
1% octanol	3.0 ± 1.5	5.3 ± 3.3^**
Time to back away (sec.) ^¶
100% octanol	2.2 ± 2.1	15 ± 11^**
1% octanol	4.7 ± 3.8^*	14 ± 14

All values are ± sd

^**

p<0.01 vs young.

^†

Fraction of animals responding to gentle touch with a hair as described in methods; young, n=157 animals; aged, n=169 animals.

^§

Mean time to stop after introduction of octanol near the nose; n≥15 trials, 5 animals.

^¶

Mean time between stop and backing away from octanol; n=15 trials, 5 animals

p<0.05 vs young, undiluted. Time to back up is only shown for animals that backed away within 60 seconds; young animals backed away in 100% of trials; aged animals backed away in 93% (100% octanol) and 47% (10% octanol) of trails.