Reduced olfactory performance is associated with changed microbial diversity, oralization, and accumulation of dead biomaterial in the nasal olfactory area.

The partial or complete loss of the sense of smell, which affects about 20% of the population, impairs the quality of life in many ways. Dysosmia and anosmia are mainly caused by aging, trauma, infections, or even neurodegenerative disease. Recently, the olfactory area-a site containing the olfactory receptor cells responsible for odor perception-was shown to harbor a complex microbiome that reflects the state of olfactory function.

Cortical thickness in the right medial frontal gyrus predicts planning performance in healthy children and adolescents.

The ability to plan is an important part of the set of the cognitive skills called "executive functions." To be able to plan actions in advance is of great importance in everyday life and constitutes one of the major key features for academic as well as economic success. The present study aimed to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of planning in normally developing children, as measured by the cortical thickness of the prefrontal cortex.

Alexithymia modulates the attitudes towards odors but not the olfactory abilities or the affective reactions to odors.

Although emotion and olfaction are closely linked, only a few studies have investigated olfactory processing in alexithymia, a condition characterized by altered emotional processing. These results do not allow comprehensive conclusions on whether individuals with alexithymia present lower olfactory abilities or only altered affective reactions and awareness of odors. Three pre-registered experiments were conducted to clarify this relation.

Fetal temporal sulcus depth asymmetry has prognostic value for language development.

In most humans, the superior temporal sulcus (STS) shows a rightward depth asymmetry. This asymmetry can not only be observed in adults, but is already recognizable in the fetal brain. As the STS lies adjacent to brain areas important for language, STS depth asymmetry may represent an anatomical marker for language abilities.