Reading cinnamon activates olfactory brain regions

Some words immediately and automatically remind us of odours, smells and scents, whereas other language items do not evoke such associations. This study investigated, for the first time, the abstract linking of linguistic and odour information using modern neuroimaging techniques (functional MRI). Subjects passively read odour-related words ('garlic', 'cinnamon', 'jasmine') and neutral language items. The odour-related terms elicited activation in the primary olfactory cortex, which include the piriform cortex and the amygdala. Our results suggest the activation of widely distributed cortical cell assemblies in the processing of olfactory words. These distributed neuron populations extend into language areas but also reach some parts of the olfactory system. These distributed neural systems may be the basis of the processing of language elements, their related conceptual and semantic information and the associated sensory information.

[1]  F Pulvermüller,et al.  Nouns and verbs in the intact brain: evidence from event-related potentials and high-frequency cortical responses. , 1999, Cerebral cortex.

[2]  F. Pulvermüller,et al.  Walking or Talking?: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Correlates of Action Verb Processing , 2001, Brain and Language.

[3]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Neural correlates of category-specific knowledge , 1996, Nature.

[4]  Alex Martin,et al.  Semantic memory and the brain: structure and processes , 2001, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[5]  B. Gulyás,et al.  Brain activation during odor perception in males and females , 2001, Neuroreport.

[6]  D. O. Hebb,et al.  The organization of behavior , 1988 .

[7]  A. Caramazza,et al.  On the Basis for the Agrammatic's Difficulty in Producing Main Verbs , 1984, Cortex.

[8]  Chantal Delon-Martin,et al.  fMRI of emotional responses to odors: influence of hedonic valence and judgment, handedness, and gender , 2003, NeuroImage.

[9]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Flavor processing: more than the sum of its parts , 1997, Neuroreport.

[10]  G. Gainotti,et al.  Evidence for a possible neuroanatomical basis for lexical processing of nouns and verbs , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[11]  C. Price,et al.  A functional neuroimaging study of the variables that generate category-specific object processing differences. , 1999, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[12]  F. Pulvermüller.  Brain reflections of words and their meaning , 2001, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[13]  F. Pulvermüller,et al.  Neurophysiological distinction of verb categories , 2000, Neuroreport.

[14]  G. Humphreys,et al.  Hierarchies, similarity, and interactivity in object recognition: “Category-specific” neuropsychological deficits , 2001, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[15]  J. D. E. Gabrieli,et al.  Sniffing and smelling: separate subsystems in the human olfactory cortex , 1998, Nature.

[16]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Patterns of dissociation in comprehension and production of nouns and verbs , 1988 .

[17]  I. Johnsrude,et al.  Somatotopic Representation of Action Words in Human Motor and Premotor Cortex , 2004, Neuron.

[18]  F. Pulvermüller,et al.  Category-specific conceptual processing of color and form in left fronto-temporal cortex. , 2006, Cerebral cortex.

[19]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Brain mechanisms linking language and action , 2005, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[20]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Human Brain Function during Odor Encoding and Recognition: A PET Activation Study a , 1998, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[21]  P. Toutouzas,et al.  A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study , 2003 .

[22]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Brain Signatures of Meaning Access in Action Word Recognition , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[23]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Category specificity in the processing of color-related and form-related words: An ERP study , 2006, NeuroImage.

[24]  Ralf Deichmann,et al.  Functional Heterogeneity in Human Olfactory Cortex: An Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study , 2002, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[25]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Discrete Cortical Regions Associated with Knowledge of Color and Knowledge of Action , 1995, Science.

[26]  C. S. Lin,et al.  Functional MRI of human olfaction. , 1997, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[27]  A. Holley,et al.  Functional Neuroanatomy of Different Olfactory Judgments , 2001, NeuroImage.

[28]  Susan K. Hippensteele,et al.  On the Basis of , 1996 .

[29]  J. Pardo,et al.  Emotion, olfaction, and the human amygdala: amygdala activation during aversive olfactory stimulation. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[30]  J. Knott.  The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory , 1951 .

[31]  J. Pardo,et al.  Functional neuroimaging of the olfactory system in humans. , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[32]  T. Shallice,et al.  Category specific semantic impairments. , 1998, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[33]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Functional localization and lateralization of human olfactory cortex , 1992, Nature.

[34]  M J Brammer,et al.  Functional MR imaging during odor stimulation: preliminary data. , 1997, Radiology.

[35]  E. Warrington,et al.  Category specific access dysphasia. , 2002, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[36]  R. Ilmoniemi,et al.  Functional links between motor and language systems , 2005, The European journal of neuroscience.

[37]  F. Pulvermüller,et al.  Distributed neuronal networks for encoding category‐specific semantic information: the mismatch negativity to action words , 2004, The European journal of neuroscience.

[38]  A. Damasio,et al.  Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[39]  F. Pulvermüller.  A brain perspective on language mechanisms: from discrete neuronal ensembles to serial order , 2002, Progress in Neurobiology.

[40]  V. Braitenberg,et al.  Entwurf einer neurologischen Theorie der Sprache , 1992, Naturwissenschaften.

[41]  David Van Vactor,et al.  The Tyrosine Kinase Abl and Its Substrate Enabled Collaborate with the Receptor Phosphatase Dlar to Control Motor Axon Guidance , 1999, Neuron.

[42]  A. Damasio,et al.  A neural basis for lexical retrieval , 1996, Nature.

[43]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A unified statistical approach for determining significant signals in images of cerebral activation , 1996, Human brain mapping.

[44]  Barbara Cerf-Ducastel,et al.  Improvement of fMRI data processing of olfactory responses with a perception-based template , 2004, NeuroImage.