Abstract
It is well known that most odorants stimulate the trigeminal system but the time course of the brain regions activated by these chemical stimulations remains poorly documented, especially regarding the trigeminal system. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study compares brain activations resulting from the contrast between two odorant conditions (one bimodal odor and one relatively pure olfactory stimulant) according to the duration of the stimulation (i.e. one inhalation, or three or six successive inhalations). The results show striking differences in the main brain regions activated according to these durations. The caudate nucleus and the orbitofrontal cortex are only involved in short-duration stimulations, and the posterior insular cortex and post-central gyrus (SI) are only activated by long duration stimulations. Different regions of the frontal, temporal and occipital lobe are activated depending on the duration but mainly during medium-duration stimulations. These results expand on the findings of previous studies and contribute to the description of temporal networks in trigeminal perception.
Highlights
It is well known that most odorants stimulate the trigeminal system but the time course of the brain regions activated by these chemical stimulations remains poorly documented, especially regarding the trigeminal system
During short-duration stimulations, activations were located in the left brainstem and cerebellum
This study helps to define the brain networks involved in trigeminal perception using different types of stimulation and paradigm, and evaluates certain previous findings
Summary
It is well known that most odorants stimulate the trigeminal system but the time course of the brain regions activated by these chemical stimulations remains poorly documented, especially regarding the trigeminal system. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study compares brain activations resulting from the contrast between two odorant conditions (one bimodal odor and one relatively pure olfactory stimulant) according to the duration of the stimulation (i.e. one inhalation, or three or six successive inhalations). Different regions of the frontal, temporal and occipital lobe are activated depending on the duration but mainly during medium-duration stimulations These results expand on the findings of previous studies and contribute to the description of temporal networks in trigeminal perception. We attempted to minimize any brain activations that could be due to obvious differences between sensations of pleasantness/unpleasantness elicited by the odorants used as noted in other studies (Savic et al, 2002; Boyle et al, 2007b)
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