| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Biophysics, UC Berkeley, berkeley, California, United States
2 Psychology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
3 Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
4 Neuroscience, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
5 Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States; Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley, 3123 Tolman Hall, Berkeley, 94720-1650, United States
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zelano{at}socrates.berkeley.edu.
Irritation and negative valence are closely associated in perception. However, these perceptual aspects can be dissociated in olfaction where irritation can accompany both pleasant and unpleasant odorants. Whereas the sensation of odor reflects transduction at olfactory receptors, irritation reflects concurrent transduction of the odorant at trigeminal receptors. Thus, a stimulus can be either a pure olfactant activating the olfactory receptors only, or a bimodal odorant activating both types of receptors. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, and a 2-by2 experimental design contrasting odorant valence (pleasant/unpleasant) and odorant type (pure olfactant/bimodal) we found activity in piriform cortex to be associated with valence, and not type, of odors. In contrast, activity in olfactory tubercle was associated with type, and not valence, of odors. Importantly, this was found when perceived intensity was held equal across odorants. These findings demonstrate that dissociable neural substrates subserve the encoding of irritation and valence in olfaction.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  M. Bensafi, N. Sobel, and R. M. Khan Hedonic-Specific Activity in Piriform Cortex During Odor Imagery Mimics That During Odor Perception J Neurophysiol, December 1, 2007; 98(6): 3254 - 3262. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 O. Pollatos, R. Kopietz, J. Linn, J. Albrecht, V. Sakar, A. Anzinger, R. Schandry, and M. Wiesmann Emotional Stimulation Alters Olfactory Sensitivity and Odor Judgment Chem Senses, July 1, 2007; 32(6): 583 - 589. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| Visit Other APS Journals Online |
