Development Of A Computer-controlled Olfactometer For Electrophysiological And FMRI Tudies Of Olfaction, And Studies Of Olfactory Event-related Potentials And Olfactory Event-related Founctional Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Human

Part I Development of a computer-controlled olfactometer for electrophysiological study of olfaction and clinical applicationObjectives: to develop the secondary generation of olfactometer used to record olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs) from the human scalp, and to verify the event-related potentials following odor presentation are exclusive olfactory response. Methods: subjects included 5 young volunteers with normosmia and 5 patients with anosmia, A complete ENT examination, A subjective olfactometry with T&T olfactometer were performed in all subjects. OERPs with stimulus isoamyl acetate(<1648 ppm), and air control were obtained in volunteers. OERPs with isoamyl acetate, and intranasal trigeminal nerve chemosensory event-related potentials with stimulus ammonia, were obtained in five patients. Results: In volunteers, evoked potentials to isoamyl acetate were identified clearly, while no evoked potential components were recorded in response to the air control stimulus. In the patients with anosmia, no evoked potentials were identified in response to isoamyl acetate, but evoked potential components to trigeminal stimulus ammonia were obtained. Conclusions: we develop a new olfactometer, which can deliver olfactory stimulus without tactile and thermal stimulation, and which can present stimulus synchronously with natural nasal inhalation.