Brain functional magnetic resonance imaging characteristics induced by olfactory stimulations in healthy adults / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the features of activation mapping induced by olfactory stimulation with functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), which will help to reveal the neural mechanism of olfactory dysfunction and contribute to the earlier diagnosis and treatment of neural degenerative disorders.Methods In this prospective study, 21 healthy volunteers were recruited in the Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College from March to October 2015.Olfactory function was evaluated by using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).During the fMRI scanning, all subjects received olfactory stimulation of rose and lavender odor.The brain activation was obtained by using softwares matlab2008a and SPM8.Results All subjects had normal olfactory function evaluated by VAS score (4.86±0.07).The activated brain areas included: bilateral inferior parietal lobule, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus-orbitofrontal gyrus, left insula, bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, left putamen, bilateral hippocampus, bilateral cingulate cortex, bilateral piriform cortex, bilateral amygdale, left lingual gyrus, bilateral cerebellum (t=2.62, P<0.01).Conclusions Olfactory is associated with multiple brain regions.The combination of olfactory event-related design and fMRI, as an objective measurement of olfactory, can be applied to investigate the olfactory cortical brain mapping.