Chemosensory perception is specifically impaired in Parkinson's disease

Patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) exhibit a considerably diminished sense of smell. The olfactory system is intimately connected to the trigeminal system, responsible for the perception of sensations such as freshness, warmth or piquancy in odorants. Usually, olfactory impairment is associated with a similar reduction of trigeminal sensitivity. A recent study suggests that the trigeminal system is not affected in patients with PD. To test this, we evaluated perception of mixed olfactory/trigeminal stimuli in 23 patients with idiopathic PD and compared them to 22 healthy matched controls. More specifically, we evaluated the trigeminal dimensions of coolness, warmth and piquancy and the olfactory dimensions of pleasantness, familiarity and edibility of 10 mixed olfactory/trigeminal odorants using Likert scale. We show that PD patients perceive trigeminal sensations of coolness, warmth, and piquancy of odorants equally well as controls, as opposed to olfactory dimensions that are perceived significantly less compared to controls (p < 0.001). Moreover, Chi-square Tests show that equal number of participants in both groups perceive the trigeminal dimensions of odorants. Thus, we provide further evidence that the trigeminal system, as opposed to the olfactory system, is not impaired in PD patients reflecting a specific pattern of chemosensory impairment in PD.