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Neural processing of odor-associated words: an fMRI study in patients with acquired olfactory loss

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Abstract

Perception of olfactory information is mediated by both bottom-up (from molecules to perception) and top-down (e.g. cross-modal associative learning) processes. Acquired olfactory loss is a frequent disorder which is typically due to alterations in the bottom-up pathway. However, it is unclear how the top-down modulation of olfactory processing is affected by olfactory impairment. Our study aimed to investigate the top-down olfactory processing in patients with acquired olfactory loss and participants with normal olfaction. Using functional MRI, brain responses from 14 patients and 16 healthy controls were assessed during a task of expectation and reading of words with strong olfactory associations (OW) (e.g. “Rose”) and control words with little to no olfactory associations (CW) (e.g. “Door”). The expectation but not reading of the OW was associated with stronger neural activation in the angular gyrus and the inferior frontal gyrus extending to insula in the group of patients. During OW reading, the brain activation in the left OFC and right putamen was negatively correlated with odor identification score in patient and control groups, respectively. In addition, the duration of olfactory loss among patients was positively associated with activation in the left putamen during OW expectation. Taken together, these findings suggest an enhanced top-down olfactory modulation in patients with olfactory loss.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG 441/18–1 granted to T.H.) and by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (M14–0375:1 granted to M. L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Pengfei Han, Annachiara Cavazzana & Thomas Hummel

  2. Department of Psychosomatics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Ilona Croy

  3. Department of Neuroradiology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Claudia Raue

  4. Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre, University of Lyon, Lyon, France

    Moustafa Bensafi

  5. Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Maria Larsson

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  1. Pengfei Han
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  2. Ilona Croy
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  4. Moustafa Bensafi
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Correspondence to Pengfei Han.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its later amendments, approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus at the “Technische Universität Dresden” (EK363082016).

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants included in this study.

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Han, P., Croy, I., Raue, C. et al. Neural processing of odor-associated words: an fMRI study in patients with acquired olfactory loss. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 1164–1174 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00062-2

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