Abstract #1121

Orthonasal versus retronasal glomerular activity in rat olfactory bulb by fMRI

Basavaraju G Sanganahalli^1,2,3, Garth J Thompson^1,2, Peter Herman^1,2,3, Gordon M Shepherd⁴, Justus V Verhagen⁵, and Fahmeed Hyder^1,2,3,6

¹Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ²Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC), Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ³Quantitative Neuroscience with Magnetic Resonance (QNMR) Core Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ⁴Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ⁵The John B. Pierce Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, ⁶Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States

Animals perceive their olfactory environment not only from odors originating in the external world (orthonasal route), but also from odors released in the oral cavity while eating food (retronasal route). We delivered odorants via the orthonasal and retronasal routes and measured whole olfactory bulb (OB) glomerular activity responses by fMRI. Our fMRI BOLD activation maps from the whole OB revealed gross spatial activation patterns that are largely independent of stimulus route, except for lower efficacy of retronasal stimuli as compared to orthonasal stimuli. This different encoding likely alters the odor perception for food vs. smelling.

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