Youngentob Steven L, Schwob James E
Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Behav Neurosci. 2006 Dec;120(6):1346-55. doi: 10.1037/0735-7044.120.6.1346.
Using a 5-odorant identification confusion matrix task, the authors assessed the consequence of olfactory epithelial damage on odorant quality perception in the rat. After establishing prelesion identification performance, each rat's epithelium was subjected to 330 ppm methyl bromide gas for 6 hr. Comparison of prelesion and 3-day postlesion performance demonstrated a significant decrease in identification as a consequence of 95%-98% epithelial destruction. Further, there was a differential effect of lesion on the ability of different animals to identify the different individual odorants. Evaluation of the anatomical state of the epithelium relative to performance on the identification task demonstrated a significant relationship between the extent and location of anatomical sparing and changes in individual odorant identifications. Assessment of pre- and postlesion quality perception for the individual rats demonstrated a highly significant shift in quality perception that was independent of any decrease in performance. These results provide strong support for the proposition that the regional variations in mucosal sensitivities within and across olfactory receptor gene expression zones are fundamentally important for the encoding of odorant quality.
作者使用一项5种气味剂识别混淆矩阵任务，评估了嗅觉上皮损伤对大鼠气味剂质量感知的影响。在确定损伤前的识别表现后，将每只大鼠的上皮组织暴露于330 ppm的溴甲烷气体中6小时。损伤前和损伤后3天表现的比较表明，由于95%-98%的上皮组织破坏，识别能力显著下降。此外，损伤对不同动物识别不同单一气味剂的能力有不同影响。相对于识别任务的表现，对上皮组织解剖状态的评估表明，解剖保留的程度和位置与单一气味剂识别变化之间存在显著关系。对个体大鼠损伤前后质量感知的评估表明，质量感知发生了高度显著的变化，且与表现的任何下降无关。这些结果为以下观点提供了有力支持：嗅觉受体基因表达区域内和区域间黏膜敏感性的区域差异对于气味剂质量的编码至关重要。
