Abstract
It was recently proposed that olfaction evolved to aid navigation. Consistent with this hypothesis, olfactory identification and spatial memory are linked to overlapping brain areas which include the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus. However, the relationship between these two processes has never been specifically investigated. Here, we show that olfactory identification covaries with spatial memory in humans. We also found that the cortical thickness of the left medial orbitofrontal cortex, and the volume of the right hippocampus, predict both olfactory identification and spatial memory. Finally, we demonstrate deficits in both olfactory identification and spatial memory in patients with lesions of the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Our findings reveal an intrinsic relationship between olfaction and spatial memory that is supported by a shared reliance on the hippocampus and medial orbitofrontal cortex. This relationship may find its roots in the parallel evolution of the olfactory and hippocampal systems.
Highlights
It was recently proposed that olfaction evolved to aid navigation
The spatial memory strategy, which involves learning the relationships between the landmarks in the environment and building a cognitive map[4], relies on a network of areas that includes the hippocampus and the medial orbitofrontal cortex[5,6,7]
To assess whether olfactory identification is associated with spatial memory and not all forms of navigation, we included a dual-solution task, called the 4-on-8 virtual maze (4/8 VM), which can be solved using either a spatial memory or stimulus-response strategy in the same sample of participants
Summary
It was recently proposed that olfaction evolved to aid navigation. Consistent with this hypothesis, olfactory identification and spatial memory are linked to overlapping brain areas which include the orbitofrontal cortex and hippocampus. There is already some evidence that olfactory identification may be associated with spatial memory, as both processes appear to involve similar brain regions, which amongst others include the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex[5,6,7,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. In the second study, we sought to fill this gap in the literature by testing the critical role of the mOFC in both olfactory identification and spatial memory, and found patients with mOFC damage to exhibit impairments in both processes
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