1Department of Radiology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
2Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.
Multisens Res. 2020 Aug 18;33(7):723-736. doi: 10.1163/22134808-bja10008.
Olfactory sensitivity is influenced by intranasal trigeminal sensation. For instance, sniffing is central to how humans and animals perceive odorants. Here, we investigated the influence of olfactory costimulation on the perception of intranasal somatosensory stimulation. In this study, 22 healthy human subjects, with normal olfactory function, performed a localization task for stimulation using weak air puffs, a pure odorant, phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA; rose odor), or their combination. Visual cues were used to inform participants to briefly hold their breath while weak, poorly localizable, air puffs and/or PEA were delivered to either nostril. Although PEA alone could not be localized to the correct nostril, when it accompanied a weak air puff in the ipsilateral nostril, localization accuracy significantly improved, relative to presentation of the air puff without the odorant. The enhancement of localization was absent when the air puff and PEA were presented to opposite nostrils. Since ipsilateral but not contralateral costimulation with PEA increased the accuracy of weak air puff localization, the results argue against a non-specific alerting effect of PEA. These findings suggest an interaction between olfactory and intranasal somatosensory stimuli leading to their integration.
嗅觉敏感性受鼻内三叉神经感觉的影响。例如，嗅觉是人类和动物感知气味的核心。在这里，我们研究了嗅觉共刺激对鼻腔内感觉刺激感知的影响。在这项研究中，22 名嗅觉功能正常的健康人类受试者执行了一项使用微弱气流、纯气味剂苯乙醇（玫瑰香味）或它们的组合进行刺激定位的任务。视觉提示告知参与者在将微弱、难以定位的气流和/或 PEA 输送到任一侧鼻腔时短暂屏住呼吸。尽管 PEA 本身不能定位到正确的鼻腔，但当它与同侧鼻腔中的微弱气流一起出现时，与没有气味剂的气流相比，定位准确性显著提高。当气流和 PEA 被输送到对侧鼻腔时，增强作用不存在。由于 PEA 的同侧但不是对侧共刺激增加了微弱气流定位的准确性，因此结果反对 PEA 产生非特异性警报效应。这些发现表明嗅觉和鼻腔内感觉刺激之间存在相互作用，导致它们的整合。
