Odor discrimination in patients with frontal lobe damage and Korsakoff's syndrome.
The involvement of the frontal cortex and thalamic nucleus in odor discrimination in humans was assessed. Six patients with frontal lobe brain damage, seven patients with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome and 16 healthy comparison subjects completed odor detection and odor discrimination tasks. Multivariate general linear modeling with age as a covariant revealed significantly decreased odor discrimination ability in frontal lobe damaged patients and marginally decreased odor discrimination ability in Korsakoff's syndrome patients as compared to the healthy comparison subjects. No deficits were found in odor detection ability. The findings suggest that in human odor discrimination, there is more involvement of cortico-cortical pathways than of thalamo-cortical pathways.
Hulshoff Pol
Hilleke E
HE
Department of Psychiatry A01.126, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. h.e.hulshoff@azu.nl
Hijman
Ron
R
Tulleken
Cornelis A F
CA
Heeren
Thea J
TJ
Schneider
Nico
N
van Ree
Jan M
JM
D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D020915:Korsakoff Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000473:pathology