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First published online on November 7, 2003.
 Copyright © 2003 by The Physiological Society
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jphysiol.2003.054726v1
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Received September 8, 2003
Revised October 9, 2003
Accepted after revision October 27, 2003

Evidence for peripheral plasticity in human odour response

Liwei Wang1, Lixin Chen1, and Tim J Jacob1*

1 Cardiff University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jacob{at}cardiff.ac.uk.

Of those people who are anosmic to androstenone, a proportion can acquire sensitivity to it by repeated exposure and even those who are able to smell it can lower their threshold with this treatment. Using olfactory threshold testing, intranasal electrophysiology and EEG we show for the first time that, (1) the subjects' detection threshold is proportional to the amplitude of the olfactory evoked potential (EOG) recorded inside the nose, (2) the EOG amplitude is correlated with the amplitude of the olfactory event-related potential (OERP) recorded on the scalp and (3) that with repetitive exposure, human subjects acquire a reduced threshold for androstenone and, as they do so, their olfactory evoked potential (EOG) and event-related potentials (OERP) increase. These observations support the existence of odorant specific plasticity in the peripheral olfactory system.


Key words: Electroencephalogram • Plasticity • Sensory transduction




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