Investigating sources of response variability and neural mediation in human nasal irritation.
Indoor Air
; 11(3): 185-91, 2001 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-11521503
ABSTRACT
A major component of indoor air complaints is nasal irritation (NI), yet there is an extreme paucity of quantitative concentration-response data from normosmics (individuals who report normal odor sensation). Due to an assumption that NI is mediated solely by the activation of the trigeminal (fifth cranial) nerve, much of the small amount of available information has been obtained from anosmic individuals, who lack olfactory (first cranial) nerve input to the brain and, thus, only have nasal trigeminal input remaining. In a repeated measurements design, the NI responses of 31 normosmic and four anosmic individuals were quantified in response to a range of concentrations of propionic acid generated by an automated air-dilution olfactometer. A variance analysis approach was used to apportion different nested sources of variation (within-session, within-individual, inter-individual) in NI responses. In contrast to anosmic NI and normosmic odor performance, NI response by normosmics exhibited considerable variation at all three levels. However, this variation did not obscure the observation that, in agreement with electrocortical measurements by Hummel et al. (1996), NI sensitivity in normosmics clearly exceeded that of anosmics. These observations provide support for enhanced research efforts to better understand the neural basis of NI so that its occurrence in actual environments may be effectively minimized.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Propionatos
/
Olfato
/
Contaminación del Aire Interior
/
Trastornos del Olfato
/
Mucosa Nasal
/
Odorantes
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Indoor Air
Asunto de la revista:
SAUDE AMBIENTAL
Año:
2001
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos