PERCEPTION OF VOLATILE CHEMICALS BY OLFACTORY AND TRIGEMINAL SYSTEMS

除了气味，许多气味还会刺激三叉神经，三叉神经是化学合成的面部成分，对化学物质产生的感觉通常采取刺激的形式。使用人类志愿者，其中一些人没有嗅觉(嗅觉障碍)，我们已经并希望继续鼻内化学合成及其与嗅觉的相互作用。该项目提出了三个广泛的目标。具体目标1将调查与嗅觉完全正常的正常人相比，嗅觉缺乏症患者是否对一系列化学审美刺激敏感。如果嗅觉缺乏症患者对化学刺激物的敏感性降低，他们和他们的医生应该意识到这种潜在的危险情况。具体目标2将通过在正常和失眠症中测试各种化学麻醉剂来研究鼻腔化学合成中的质量编码。如果化学合成中存在质量编码，那么就需要信息来确定有多少质量存在，这些质量的感知如何相互影响，以及它们如何与嗅觉相互作用。具体目标3将通过确定接触和适应鼻内化学作用对嗅觉敏感性的影响以及反之亦然，来探索化学作用和嗅觉之间的相互作用。目前，关于鼻腔化学合成和嗅觉之间的相互作用还存在一些混淆。这一特定目标的工作将收集关于这一问题的更多数据，这将有助于更好地了解嗅觉和化学药物的相互作用。为此，我们将依靠人们对刺激的适应能力，并确定当刺激物单方面激活三叉神经时，鼻子的哪一侧受到刺激(尽管看起来不太可能，嗅觉本身并不提供此类信息)。在其他工作中，我们将依靠刺激的性质来提供线索，个人可以利用这些线索来区分不同的选择。结果应该有助于全面了解个人如何与其不断扩大的化学感觉环境相互作用。

Beyond smell, many odorants stimulate the trigeminal nerve, which provides the facial component of chemesthesis, the perception of sensations originating from chemicals, often takes taking the form of irritation. Using human volunteers, some of whom have no sense of smell (anosmia), we have been and wish to continue intranasal chemesthesis and its interactions with olfaction. The project proposes three broad goals. Specific Aim 1 will investigate whether anosmics are sensitive to a range of chemesthetic stimuli relative to normosmics, in whom the sense of smell is fully functional. Should anosmics have an associated diminution in sensitivity to chemical irritants, they and their physicians should be made aware of this potentially dangerous situation. Specific Aim 2 will investigate quality coding in intranasal chemesthesis by testing a variety of chemesthetic agents in normosmics and anosmics. If quality coding exists within chemesthesis, then information would be needed to determine how many qualities exist, how the perception of these qualities influence each other and how they interact with olfaction. Specific Aim 3 will explore interaction between chemesthesis and olfaction by determining the effects of exposure to and adaptation of intranasal chemesthesis on olfactory sensitivity and vice versa. At present there is some confusion about the interaction between intranasal chemesthesis and olfaction. Work in this specific aim will collect additional data on this issue which should provide for a greater understanding of olfactory and chemesthetic interactions. To these ends, we will rely upon the ability of people to adapt to stimuli and to determine which side of the nose is being stimulated when an irritant activates the trigeminal nerve unilaterally (unlikely as it may seem, olfaction per se does not provide such information). In other work we willy rely upon the qualities of the stimuli to provide cues that individuals can use to discriminate between alternative choices. Results should contribute to an overall understanding of how individuals interact with their ever-expanding chemosensory environment.