The chemical senses

2007 ◽  
pp. 56-98
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Senses

Intraoperative monitoring of olfactory function: a feasibility study

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (5) ◽  
pp. 1659-1664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahan Momjian ◽  
Rémi Tyrand ◽  
Basile N. Landis ◽  
Colette Boëx
Keyword(s):  
Evoked Potentials ◽  
General Anesthesia ◽  
Intraoperative Neuromonitoring ◽  
Olfactory Function ◽  
Chemical Senses ◽  
Cerebral Lesions ◽  
Artifact Rejection ◽  
Rejection Criterion ◽  
Olfactory Stimuli ◽  
Anterior Fossa

OBJECTIVEIntraoperative neuromonitoring of the chemical senses (smell and taste) has never been performed. The objective of this study was to determine if olfactory-evoked potentials could be obtained intraoperatively under general anesthesia.METHODSA standard olfactometer was used in the surgical theater with hydrogen sulfide (4 ppm, 200 msec). Olfactory-evoked potentials were recorded in 8 patients who underwent neurosurgery for resection of cerebral lesions. These patients underwent routine target-controlled propofol and sufentanil general anesthesia. Frontal, temporal, and parietal scalp subdermal electrodes were recorded ipsilaterally and contralaterally at the site of the surgery. Evoked potentials were computed if at least 70 epochs (0.5–100 Hz) satisfying the artifact rejection criterion (threshold 45 μV) could be extracted from signals of electrodes.RESULTSContributive recordings were obtained for 5 of 8 patients (3 patients had fewer than 70 epochs with an amplitude < 45 μV). Olfactory-evoked potentials showed N1 responses (mean 442.8 ± 40.0 msec), most readily observed in the patient who underwent midline anterior fossa neurosurgery. No component of later latencies could be recorded consistently.CONCLUSIONSThe study confirms that olfactory-evoked potentials can be measured in response to olfactory stimuli under general anesthesia. This demonstrates the feasibility of recording olfactory function intraoperatively and opens the potential for neuromonitoring of olfactory function during neurosurgery.

Chemical Senses in Cancer Patients

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 2264-2269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aytug Altundag ◽  
Melih Cayonu
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Chemical Senses

Biohybrid robots are synthetic biology systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Ayers
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Eukaryotic Cells ◽  
Chemical Senses ◽  
Biomimetic Robots ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
Induced Pluripotent ◽  
And Control ◽  
And Robotics

This chapter describes how synthetic biology and organic electronics can integrate neurobiology and robotics to form a basis for biohybrid robots and synthetic neuroethology. Biomimetic robots capture the performance advantages of animal models by mimicking the behavioral control schemes evolved in nature, based on modularized devices that capture the biomechanics and control principles of the nervous system. However, current robots are blind to chemical senses, difficult to miniaturize, and require chemical batteries. These obstacles can be overcome by integration of living engineered cells. Synthetic biology seeks to build devices and systems from fungible gene parts (gene systems coding different proteins) integrated into a chassis (induced pluripotent eukaryotic cells, yeast, or bacteria) to produce devices with properties not found in nature. Biohybrid robots are examples of such systems (interacting sets of devices). A nascent literature describes genes that can mediate organ levels of organization. Such capabilities, applied to biohybrid systems, portend truly biological robots guided, controlled, and actuated solely by life processes.

scholarly journals Limbic Expression of mRNA Coding for Chemoreceptors in Human Brain—Lessons from Brain Atlases

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 6858
Author(s):  
Fanny Gaudel ◽  
Gaëlle Guiraudie-Capraz ◽  
François Féron
Keyword(s):  
G Proteins ◽  
The Body ◽  
Trace Amines ◽  
Chemical Senses ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Human Brains ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Atlases

Animals strongly rely on chemical senses to uncover the outside world and adjust their behaviour. Chemical signals are perceived by facial sensitive chemosensors that can be clustered into three families, namely the gustatory (TASR), olfactory (OR, TAAR) and pheromonal (VNR, FPR) receptors. Over recent decades, chemoreceptors were identified in non-facial parts of the body, including the brain. In order to map chemoreceptors within the encephalon, we performed a study based on four brain atlases. The transcript expression of selected members of the three chemoreceptor families and their canonical partners was analysed in major areas of healthy and demented human brains. Genes encoding all studied chemoreceptors are transcribed in the central nervous system, particularly in the limbic system. RNA of their canonical transduction partners (G proteins, ion channels) are also observed in all studied brain areas, reinforcing the suggestion that cerebral chemoreceptors are functional. In addition, we noticed that: (i) bitterness-associated receptors display an enriched expression, (ii) the brain is equipped to sense trace amines and pheromonal cues and (iii) chemoreceptor RNA expression varies with age, but not dementia or brain trauma. Extensive studies are now required to further understand how the brain makes sense of endogenous chemicals.

Somesthesis and the Chemical Senses

1953 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-136
Author(s):  
T C Ruch
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Senses
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