INTRODUCTION Phantosmia is the qualitative disorder of olfaction characterized by the perception of odor, usually unpleasant, when there are no odorants present. It may be described as cacosmic (rotten, decayed, fecal), torquosmic (burned, metallic, chemical-like), or mixed. Phantosmia is a relatively uncommon disorder of olfaction and represents around 10% to 20% of olfactory disorders among t...

Olfaction is typically described as behaviorally slow, suggesting neural processes on the order of hundreds of milliseconds to seconds as candidate mechanisms in the creation of olfactory percepts. Whereas a recent study challenged this view in suggesting that a single sniff was sufficient for optimal olfactory discrimination, a study by Abraham et al. in this issue of Neuron sets out to negate...

Internal action models (IAMs) are brain templates for sensory-motor coordination underlying diverse behaviors. An emerging theory suggests that impaired IAMs are a common theme in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, whether impaired IAMs occur across sensory systems and how they relate to the major phenotype of ASD, namely impaired social communication, remains unclear. Olfaction relies on...

INTRODUCTION Olfaction may be related to food restriction and weight loss. However, reports regarding olfactory function in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have been inconclusive. OBJECTIVE Characterize olfactory sensitivity and identification in female adolescents and young adults with first-episode AN and young females recovered from AN. METHODS We used the Sniffin' Sticks Odor Thr...

OBJECTIVES Results of butanol threshold tests (BTTs) have shown that birhinal olfaction tends to converge toward monorhinal olfaction of the dominant nostril. However, birhinal olfaction may also be worse than dominant-side monorhinal olfaction. The goal of our study was to investigate the effect of deviated nasal septum on birhinal olfaction in patients with lateralized olfaction and to examin...

Introduction Since the origin of life in the primordial soup, the survival of all organisms has depended on their ability to detect and respond to chemicals in their environment. Today, animal chemosensation— smell and taste—relies on sensory circuits that recognize diverse external chemical cues and transform them into precise patterns of neuronal activity to evoke the appropriate response (Ac...

OBJECTIVE 22q11 deletion syndrome, a common human interstitial deletion syndrome (1:5000), is associated with a heterogeneous physical phenotype, including several factors that markedly increase the risk for olfactory disorder. Despite its potential consequences, pediatric studies of impaired olfaction are rare, and odor detection in children with 22q11 deletion syndrome has not yet been examin...

BACKGROUND Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is an inflammatory process that causes different clinical symptoms: nasal blockage and congestion, posterior and anterior nasal drip, and smell disorder ranging from reduced olfaction (hyposmia) to complete loss of smell (anosmia). It has been suggested that mechanical blockage of olfactory clef after polypectomy is responsible for the persistent impairme...