Brain distinguishes between nose and mouth odors.

0 Comments | M2 Presswire, August, 2005

M2 PRESSWIRE-19 August 2005-YALE UNIVERSITY: Brain distinguishes between nose and mouth odors (C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:19082005 New Haven, Conn. - Researchers in a study in Neuron this week present the first clear evidence that the brain processes the same odorant molecule differently if it arrives through the nose rather than the mouth.

Dana Small, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine and The John Pierce Laboratory, said she and her colleagues investigated whether sensing an odor "orthonasally," or through the nose, produces similar brain response as sensing it through the mouth, or "retronasally." "When we sense an odor retronasally we perceive it as coming from the mouth," said Small. "We may...