Human Olfaction without Apparent Olfactory Bulbs

Tali Weiss, Timna Soroka, Lior Gorodisky, Kobi Snitz, Reut Weissgross, Edna Furman-Haran, Thijs Dhollander, Noam Sobel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The olfactory bulbs (OBs) are the first site of odor representation in the mammalian brain, and their unique ultrastructure is considered a necessary substrate for spatiotemporal coding of smell. Given this, we were struck by the serendipitous observation at MRI of two otherwise healthy young left-handed women, yet with no apparent OBs. Standardized tests revealed normal odor awareness, detection, discrimination, identification, and representation. Functional MRI of these women's brains revealed that odorant-induced activity in piriform cortex, the primary OB target, was similar in its extent to that of intact controls. Finally, review of a public brain-MRI database with 1,113 participants (606 women) also tested for olfactory performance, uncovered olfaction without anatomically defined OBs in ∼0.6% of women and ∼4.25% of left-handed women. Thus, humans can perform the basic facets of olfaction without canonical OBs, implying extreme plasticity in the functional neuroanatomy of this sensory system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)35-45.e5
Number of pages16
JournalNeuron
Volume105
Issue number1
Early online date6 Nov 2019
DOIs
StatePublished - 8 Jan 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Neuroscience

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