Electroantennography

Electroantennogram or EAG is a technique by which we measure the average output of the antenna to the brain for a given odor. It is commonly used in the electrophysiology while studying the function of olfactory pathway in insects. The technique was invented in 1957 by German biologist Dietrich Schneider.^[1]

EAG is performed in two ways:

1. Remove the antenna from the animal and insert two wires for contact on to the two ends and amplify the voltage between them.
2. Leave the animal intact and insert a ground wire to some part of the body and another wire to the tip of the antenna. The later method is useful if one is doing an experiment on the animal as a whole while doing the antennogram.
   

   

   Setup for antennogram

The technique is widely applied in screening of insect pheromones by examining the responses to fractions of a compound mixture separated using chromatography.^[2]

Usually the wire inserted into the antenna is a thin silver wire which is chlorided in bleach.

References

1. ^ National Academy of sciences (2003). Beyond discovery - Insect pheromones.
2. ^ Hummel, H. E. and T. A. Miller (1984). Techniques in pheromone research.Springer-Verlag,New York.

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