Human brain mapping of olfactory pathway
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted olfactory dysfunction as a critical symptom, revealing the intricate link between viral infections and sensory loss. This insight prompts a deeper exploration into the olfactory system\'s role across health and disease, particularly its connections to neurodegenerative and psychiatric conditions. Yet, despite its significance, the brain structural networks related to olfaction have not been as thoroughly explored as those for the visual and auditory senses. Our study utilized high-resolution structural imaging to construct a probabilistic map of the olfactory pathways in a cohort of 400 individuals, all exhibiting normal olfactory function and aged between 19 to 50 years. The methodology included registration, spatial normalization, binarization, merging, and averaging, ensuring the creation of a robust and representative map. The resulting map delineates the olfactory circuitry, identifying essential components such as the entorhinal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, ventral tegmental area, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, cingulate cortex, thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus, striatum, and nucleus accumbens. This research is particularly noteworthy for its contribution to the understanding of olfactory pathways in Asian populations, presenting an Asian-specialized template for olfactory pathway. It is expected that this olfactory template will significantly enhance research efforts focused on the structural basis of olfactory disorders.
2024 Spring Convention