A non-invasive measure of olfactory bulb function in humans

Summary of Presentation: Chemosensory neuroscience has the ability to acquire relatively non-invasive recordings from all main stages of human olfactory processing but one, the olfactory bulb (OB). This current lack of recording techniques poses a serious problem for the advancement of our understanding of how the human olfactory system works in health and disease. In this talk, I will outline a new method that enables the measurement of functional processing within the human OB on a millisecond time-scale. Moreover, I will present data suggesting that the human olfactory bulb is processing both intensity and pleasantness but at different time intervals and in a centrifugal feedback loop with other cerebral areas. Lastly, I will outline how this method can be used to validate new odor presentation methods in an objective manner.