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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on October 12, 2007
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm178
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Functional Neuronal Processing of Body Odors Differs from that of Similar Common Odors

Johan N. Lundström1,2, Julie A. Boyle1,2, Robert J. Zatorre1,2 and Marilyn Jones-Gotman1,2

1 Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A1B1, Canada, 2 Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4 Canada

Address correspondence to Johan N. Lundström PhD, Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA. E-mail: jlundstrom{at}monell.org

Visual and auditory stimuli of high social and ecological importance are processed in the brain by specialized neuronal networks. To date, this has not been demonstrated for olfactory stimuli. By means of positron emission tomography, we sought to elucidate the neuronal substrates behind body odor perception to answer the question of whether the central processing of body odors differs from perceptually similar nonbody odors. Body odors were processed by a network that was distinctly separate from common odors, indicating a separation in the processing of odors based on their source. Smelling a friend's body odor activated regions previously seen for familiar stimuli, whereas smelling a stranger activated amygdala and insular regions akin to what has previously been demonstrated for fearful stimuli. The results provide evidence that social olfactory stimuli of high ecological relevance are processed by specialized neuronal networks similar to what has previously been demonstrated for auditory and visual stimuli.

Key Words: body odor • imaging • neural networks • odor identification


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