Milardi Demetrio, Cacciola Alberto, Calamuneri Alessandro, Ghilardi Maria F, Caminiti Fabrizia, Cascio Filippo, Andronaco Veronica, Anastasi Giuseppe, Mormina Enricomaria, Arrigo Alessandro, Bruschetta Daniele, Quartarone Angelo
Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo (IRCCS)Messina, Italy.
Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of MessinaMessina, Italy.
Front Neuroanat. 2017 Apr 10;11:32. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2017.00032. eCollection 2017.
Although the olfactory sense has always been considered with less interest than the visual, auditive or somatic senses, it does plays a major role in our ordinary life, with important implication in dangerous situations or in social and emotional behaviors. Traditional Diffusion Tensor signal model and related tractography have been used in the past years to reconstruct the cranial nerves, including the olfactory nerve (ON). However, no supplementary information with regard to the pathways of the olfactory network have been provided. Here, by using the more advanced Constrained Spherical Deconvolution (CSD) diffusion model, we show for the first time and non-invasively that, in healthy humans, the olfactory system has a widely distributed anatomical network to several cortical regions as well as to many subcortical structures. Although the present study focuses on an healthy sample size, a similar approach could be applied in the near future to gain important insights with regard to the early involvement of olfaction in several neurodegenerative disorders.
尽管嗅觉一直以来受到的关注比视觉、听觉或躯体感觉少，但它在我们的日常生活中确实起着重要作用，在危险情况或社会及情感行为中有着重要影响。过去几年，传统的扩散张量信号模型及相关的纤维束成像技术已被用于重建颅神经，包括嗅神经（ON）。然而，关于嗅觉网络通路并未提供额外信息。在此，通过使用更先进的约束球形反卷积（CSD）扩散模型，我们首次非侵入性地表明，在健康人类中，嗅觉系统具有广泛分布至多个皮质区域以及许多皮质下结构的解剖学网络。尽管本研究聚焦于健康样本量，但类似方法在不久的将来可能会被应用，以深入了解嗅觉在几种神经退行性疾病中的早期参与情况。
