Cognitive NeuroscienceResearch PaperSpatio–temporal dynamics of olfactory processing in the human brain: an event-related source imaging study
Section snippets
Participants
Twelve normosmic healthy volunteers (six male; six female; median age: 30 years; age range: 22–46 years) were included in this study. All participants were right handed (Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971)) and non-smokers. Prior to participation, subjects provided written informed consent. The study design had been approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland) in agreement with the Declaration of Helsinki. Exclusion criteria were
Epicranial olfactory ERP mapping
Fig. 2 shows the grand-mean OERP response averaged over 12 healthy controls for both left and right nostril stimulation. Fig. 2A reveals the conventional ERP traces of the parietal electrode (Pz) referenced to the mean of the two mastoid electrodes (M1/M2), showing the expected N1 (Peak: 408 and 420 ms for the right and the left stimulation respectively) and P2–P3 components (Peak: 844 and 796 ms for the right and the left stimulation respectively) as described in previous literature (Kobal,
Discussion
The major finding of this study is that source localization analysis of high-density olfactory ERPs identified a clear temporal succession of central nervous olfactory processing. Olfactory information is first processed in mesial and lateral temporal brain structures ipsilaterally to the stimulated nostril, before it reaches contralateral temporal and finally frontal areas.
The olfactory ERP waveforms in the present study stand in line with a large body of literature on chemosensory ERPs and
Conclusion
In conclusion, the present research shows that olfactory information can be traced with high temporal and good spatial resolution not only at neocortical sites but also at the level of deep brain structures. This approach opens new avenues for the analysis of olfactory information processing. As a first result the present data indicate that olfactory information is processed mostly ipsilaterally to the stimulated nostril in humans and that the information is not stationary but seems to go back
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a Fund of the Neuroscience Center of the University of Geneva to BNL, JSL and CMM. BNL was supported by a Grant of the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (SSMBS grant n° PASMA-119579/1). CMM was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 320030-111783. TH was supported by a grant from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (European associated laboratory; EAL 549, CNRS-TUD). The Cartool software (//brainmapping.unige.ch/Cartool.htm
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