Skip Navigation


Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on December 5, 2006
Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(10):2268-2275; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl135
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/10/2268    most recent
bhl135v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Frasnelli, J.
Right arrow Articles by Hummel, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Frasnelli, J.
Right arrow Articles by Hummel, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Interactions between Olfaction and the Trigeminal System: What Can Be Learned from Olfactory Loss

Johannes Frasnelli1,2, Benno Schuster2 and Thomas Hummel2

1 Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2 Smell and Taste Clinic, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany

Address correspondence to Johannes Frasnelli, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, 3801 University Street, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4, Canada. Email: johannes.frasnelli{at}mcgill.ca.

The olfactory and the trigeminal systems have a close relationship. Most odorants also stimulate the trigeminal nerve. Further, subjects with no sense of smell exhibit a decreased trigeminal sensitivity with unclear underlying mechanisms. Previous studies indicated that single stages of trigeminal processing may differently be affected by olfactory loss. A better knowledge of adaptive and compensatory changes in the trigeminal system of subjects with acquired anosmia (AA) will improve the understanding of interactive processes between the 2 sensory systems. Thus, we aimed to assess trigeminal function on different levels of processing in subjects with AA. Subjects with AA showed larger electrophysiological responses to irritants obtained from the mucosa than healthy controls. On central levels, however, they exhibited smaller event-related potentials and psychophysical measures to irritants. Over 9 months, they exhibited an increase in trigeminal sensitivity. Subjects with recovering olfactory function showed an even more increased peripheral responsiveness to irritants. These data suggest dynamic mechanisms of mixed sensory adaptation/compensation in the interaction between the olfactory and trigeminal systems, where trigeminal activation is increased on mucosal levels in subjects with AA and amplified on central levels in subjects with a functioning olfactory system.

Key Words: anosmia • chemosensory • event-related potentials • negative mucosal potentials • smell


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.