Abstract
The anterior medial temporal lobe (TL), including the amygdala, has been implicated in olfactory processing, e.g., coding for intensity and valence, and seems also involved in memory. With this background, the present study evaluated whether anterior medial TL-resections in TL epilepsy affected intensity and valence ratings, as well as free and cued identification of odors. These aspects of odor perception were assessed in 31 patients with unilateral anterior medial TL-resections (17 left, 14 right) and 16 healthy controls. Results suggest that the anterior medial TL is in particular necessary for free, but also cued, odor identification. TL resection was also found to impair odor valence, but not intensity ratings. Left resected patients rated nominally pleasant and unpleasant odors as more neutral suggesting a special role for the left anterior TL in coding for emotional saliency in response to odors.
Highlights
The medial temporal lobe (TL) is the main host for brain areas involved in both memory, emotional, and olfactory processing in the mammalian brain (van Hartevelt and Kringelbach, 2012; Lehn et al, 2013; Hudry et al, 2014).Several cortical areas located within the medial TL, among others the piriform cortex, the amygdala, the entorhinal cortex as well as the hippocampal formation, have been linked to olfactory processing due to their close anatomical connectivity to the olfactory receptor neurons (Room et al, 1984; Carmichael et al, 1994)
No further significant main effects [Group: F(1,790) = 0.7, p = 0.39; Stimulation Side: F(1,790) = 1.9, p = 0.16] and no significant interactions between the three factors were found [all F(1,790) < 0.8, p > 0.3]. These results indicate that resection side did not modulate the perception of odor intensity in left and right anterior medial temporal resection (ATR) patients differently
We investigated whether left and right ATR patient groups differed in odor valence perception
Summary
Several cortical areas located within the medial TL, among others the piriform cortex, the amygdala, the entorhinal cortex as well as the hippocampal formation, have been linked to olfactory processing due to their close anatomical connectivity to the olfactory receptor neurons (Room et al, 1984; Carmichael et al, 1994). Among all brain structures residing in the medial TL, amygdala has proven strong involvement in olfactory processing. It is located within a monosynaptic projection from the olfactory receptor neurons and has been associated with several aspects of odor processing (as reviewed in Seubert et al, 2013), odor recognition (Jung et al, 2006), odor-association learning (Gottfried et al, 2002), odor intensity coding (Anderson et al, 2003) and with combined coding of both olfactory
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