Indistinguishable odour enantiomers: Differences between peripheral and central-nervous electrophysiological responses.

ABSTRACT: The ability of humans to discriminate enantiomeric odour pairs is substance -specific. Current literature suggests that psychophysical discrimination of odour enantiomers mainly depends on the peripheral processing at the level of the olfactory sensory neurons (OSN). To study the influence of central processing in discrimination, we investigated differences in the electrophysiological responses to psychophysically indistinguishable (+)- and (-)- rose oxide enantiomers at peripheral and central-nervous levels in humans. We recorded the electro-olfactogram (EOG) from the olfactory epithelium and the EEG-derived olfactory event-related potentials (OERP). Results from a psychophysical three alternative forced choice test indicated indistinguishability of the two odour enantiomers. In a total o

SUBMITTER: Poletti SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5566401 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature