Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstr. 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2010 Mar;75(3):326-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2010.01.003. Epub 2010 Jan 15.
Childhood maltreatment (CM) as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is said to result in functional changes to amygdalae and orbitofrontal cortex. Thus, it might be expected to change olfactory function in adults with a CM-history and current PTSD symptomatology as amygdalae and orbitofrontal cortex are of major importance for olfactory information processing. To explore this we investigated olfactory function in 31 women with current psychopathology and a history of CM, 28 without CM, and 27 healthy women. We used the "Sniffin' Sticks" threshold and identification test and analyzed chemosensory event-related potentials. Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire to access current symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We found no significant difference between the CM-Group and the two control groups, but PTSD severity correlated significantly with odor identification scores and with parameters of event-related potentials in response to unpleasant stimuli. The results indicate preferential processing of unpleasant stimuli in PTSD patients irrespective of the childhood history.
儿童虐待（CM）和创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）据称会导致杏仁核和眶额皮层的功能变化。因此，人们可能会期望有 CM 病史和当前 PTSD 症状的成年人的嗅觉功能发生变化，因为杏仁核和眶额皮层对嗅觉信息处理至关重要。为了探讨这一点，我们调查了 31 名有当前精神病理学和 CM 病史的女性、28 名无 CM 病史的女性和 27 名健康女性的嗅觉功能。我们使用了“Sniffin' Sticks”阈值和识别测试，并分析了化学感觉事件相关电位。参与者还被要求完成一份问卷，以评估当前的创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状。我们没有发现 CM 组与两个对照组之间有显著差异，但 PTSD 严重程度与气味识别分数以及对不愉快刺激的事件相关电位参数显著相关。结果表明，PTSD 患者对不愉快刺激的处理存在偏好，而与儿童期经历无关。
