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Updated: Jun 22, 2026
A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function
Published on: July 30, 2017
[Olfactory functional magnetic resonance imaging with modified OEP-98C olfactometer and event-related design]
Hui You1, Jian Wang, Jian-Feng Liu
1Department of Radiology, PUMC Hospital, CAMS and PUMC, Beijing 100730, China. youhuimr77@yahoo.com.cn
Objective:
To explore the feasibility of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in analysis of olfaction function with modified OEP-98C olfactometer and event-related design.
Methods:
Six young right-handed men underwent olfactory fMRI with event-related design. OEP-98C olfactometer was modified to accommodate MR environment. There were 2 types of tasks in the experiment. In one task, only isoamyl acetate was used as odorant. In the other task, to avoid possible decreased olfactory attention, vanillin was given before each presentation of isoamyl acetate.
Results:
In both tasks, uniform activation in piriform cortex and secondary olfactory cortexes was determined. The activation of piriform cortex was not significantly different between the two tasks (P > 0.01).
Conclusions:
With isoamyl acetate as odorant, modified OEP-98C olfactometer, and event-related design, olfaction fMRI can depict cortex activation at primary and secondary olfactory cortex. Applying other odorant with similar quality to avoid olfactory attention decrease can not promote depiction of activation in primary olfactory cortex.
