Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences, Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wroclaw, Poland.
Brain Inj. 2023 Sep 19;37(11):1272-1284. doi: 10.1080/02699052.2023.2237889. Epub 2023 Jul 24.
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) might impair the sense of smell and cognitive functioning. Repeated, systematic exposure to odors, i.e., olfactory training (OT) has been proposed for treatment of olfactory dysfunctions, including post-traumatic smell loss. Additionally, OT has been shown to mitigate cognitive deterioration in older population and enhance selected cognitive functions in adults. We aimed to investigate olfactory and cognitive effects of OT in the pediatric population after mTBI, likely to exhibit cognitive and olfactory deficits.
Our study comprised 159 children after mTBI and healthy controls aged 6-16 years ( = 9.68 ± 2.78 years, 107 males), who performed 6-months-long OT with a set of 4 either high- or low-concentrated odors. Before and after OT we assessed olfactory functions, fluid intelligence, and executive functions.
OT with low-concentrated odors increased olfactory sensitivity in children after mTBI. Regardless of health status, children who underwent OT with low-concentrated odors had higher fluid intelligence scores at post-training measurement, whereas scores of children performing OT with high-concentrated odors did not change.
Our study suggests that OT with low-concentrated odors might accelerate rehabilitation of olfactory sensitivity in children after mTBI and support cognitive functions in the area of fluid intelligence regardless of head trauma.
轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）可能会损害嗅觉和认知功能。反复、系统地接触气味，即嗅觉训练（OT），已被提议用于治疗嗅觉障碍，包括创伤后嗅觉丧失。此外，OT 已被证明可以减轻老年人群的认知恶化，并增强成年人的某些认知功能。我们旨在研究 mTBI 后儿科人群中 OT 的嗅觉和认知影响，这些儿童可能表现出认知和嗅觉缺陷。
我们的研究包括 159 名 mTBI 后和健康对照组的儿童，年龄在 6-16 岁（=9.68±2.78 岁，107 名男性），他们接受了 6 个月的 OT，使用一组 4 种高或低浓度的气味。在 OT 前后，我们评估了嗅觉功能、流体智力和执行功能。
低浓度气味的 OT 增加了 mTBI 后儿童的嗅觉敏感性。无论健康状况如何，接受低浓度气味 OT 的儿童在训练后测量时流体智力得分更高，而接受高浓度气味 OT 的儿童得分没有变化。
我们的研究表明，低浓度气味的 OT 可能加速 mTBI 后儿童嗅觉敏感性的康复，并支持无论头部创伤如何，在流体智力领域的认知功能。
