Xiaoyu Sun1, Jianli Wang1, Christopher W. Weitekamp1, Megha Patel1, Jeffrey Vesek1, Qing X. Yang1, 2
1Radiology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Neurosurgery, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States
The odor perception is intimately coupled with sniffing, and both functions are processed in the primary olfactory cortex (POC). A variety of studies on mammalian olfactory systems have shown the spatial distribution of the olfactory components in the olfactory system. However, It is difficult to differentiate odorant perception from sniffing in human primary olfactory cortex using fMRI. In this study, we demonstrated that the BOLD signals in the POC from odorant stimulation can be separated and quantified from those by sniffing, which opens up opportunities for investigating mechanisms of olfactory deficits in several neurodegenerative diseases.