title: The fate of the inner nose: odor imagery in patients with olfactory loss.
abstract: Cerebral activations during olfactory mental imagery are fairly well investigated in healthy participants but little attention has been given to olfactory imagery in patients with olfactory loss. To explore whether olfactory loss leads to deficits in olfactory imagery, neural responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and self-report measures were investigated in 16 participants with acquired olfactory loss and 19 control participants. Participants imagined both pleasant and unpleasant odors and their visual representations. Patients reported less vivid olfactory but not visual images than controls. Results from neuroimaging revealed that activation patterns differed between patients and controls. While the control group showed stronger activation in olfactory brain regions for unpleasant compared to pleasant odors, the patient group did not. Also, activation in critical areas for olfactory imagery was correlated with the duration of olfactory dysfunction, indicating that the longer the duration of dysfunction, the more the attentional resources were employed. This indicates that participants with olfactory loss have difficulties to perform olfactory imagery in the conventional way. Regular exposure to olfactory information may be necessary to maintain an olfactory imagery capacity.
authors.affiliation: Smell and Taste Clinic, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany; Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: elena.flohr@uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: E L R
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Flohr
authors.affiliation: Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arshamian
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wieser
authors.affiliation: Smell and Taste Clinic, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hummel
authors.affiliation: Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Germany; Department of Psychology (Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mühlberger
authors.affiliation: Smell and Taste Clinic, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hummel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging; mental imagery; olfaction; olfactory loss; vividness