Balance in multiple sclerosis: relationship to central brain regions.

Dizziness, postural instability, and ataxia are among the most debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), reflecting, in large part, dysfunctional integration of visual, somatosensory, and vestibular sensory cues. However, the role of MS-related supratentorial lesions in producing such symptoms is poorly understood. In this study, motor control test (MCT) and dynamic sensory organization test (SOT) scores of 58 MS patients were compared to those of 72 healthy controls; correlations were determined between the MS scores of 49 patients and lesion volumes within 26 brain regions.

Age-Related Deficits in Taste and Smell.

Disturbances in both the ability to smell and to taste are common in older persons. Such disturbances influence nutrition, safety, quality of life, and psychological and physical health. The anatomic and physiologic causes of age-related disturbances are multiple and interacting, and depend on genetic and environmental factors.

Influences of temporal lobe epilepsy and temporal lobe resection on olfaction.

Although temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and resection (TLR) impact olfactory eloquent brain structures, their influences on olfaction remain enigmatic. We sought to more definitively assess the influences of TLE and TLR on olfaction using three well-validated olfactory tests and measuring  the tests' associations with the volume of numerous temporal lobe brain structures. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test and an odor detection threshold test were administered to 71 TLE patients and 71 age- and sex-matched controls; 69 TLE patients and controls received an odor discrimination/memory test.

Effects of "trigeminal training" on trigeminal sensitivity and self-rated nasal patency.

Purpose: Patients with the feeling of a congested nose not always suffer from an anatomical obstruction but might just have a low trigeminal sensibility, which prevents them from perceiving the nasal airstream. We examined whether intermittent trigeminal stimulation increases sensitivity of the nasal trigeminal nerve and whether this effect is accompanied by subjective improvement of nasal breathing.

Method: Thirty-five patients (M = 58.

Development of an International Odor Identification Test for Children: The Universal Sniff Test.

Objective: To assess olfactory function in children and to create and validate an odor identification test to diagnose olfactory dysfunction in children, which we called the Universal Sniff (U-Sniff) test.

Study Design: This is a multicenter study involving 19 countries. The U-Sniff test was developed in 3 phases including 1760 children age 5-7 years.

Olfactory processing in bipolar disorder, major depression, and anxiety.

Objectives: Although olfactory abnormalities are well established in schizophrenia, considerably less work has examined olfactory performance in other neuropsychiatric conditions. In the current study, we examined odor identification, odor discrimination, detection threshold, and odor hedonic processing performance in individuals with bipolar I disorder (n = 43; n = 13 with psychotic features), bipolar II disorder (n = 48), major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 134), anxiety (n = 48), and no mental disorder (n = 72) who participated in a community-based family study.

Methods: Best estimate DSM-IV diagnoses were based on in-depth personal interviews as well as interviews with family members.

Structural anomalies of the peripheral olfactory system in psychosis high-risk subjects.

Background: Olfactory impairments are prominent in both schizophrenia and the preceding at-risk state. Their presence prior to illness predicts poor functional outcome. In schizophrenia, these impairments reflect peripheral olfactory structural abnormalities, which are hypothesized to arise during early embryonic development.

Olfactory dysfunction and quality of life in patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia.

Transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) is a group of thalassemia syndromes that require regular blood transfusions for survival. It is unknown whether the sense of smell of patients with TDT is affected, and if so, whether smell loss has an adverse effect on quality of life (QOL). Olfactory thresholds were measured using Snap & Sniff wands.

Olfactory dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases: is there a common pathological substrate?

In patients with neurodegenerative diseases, there is a spectrum of smell dysfunction ranging from severe loss, as seen in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, to relatively little loss, as seen in progressive supranuclear palsy. Given the ubiquitous but varying degrees of olfactory dysfunction among such diseases, it is conceivable that differential disruption of a common primordial neuropathological substrate causes these differences in olfactory function. For example, the amount of damage to forebrain neurotransmitter and neuromodulator circuits, most notably those involving cholinergic transmission, appears to be correlated with quantitative smell test scores across a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases.

Prevalence and risk factors of taste and smell impairment in a nationwide representative sample of the US population: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of, and explore potential risk factors for, taste and smell dysfunction in the general population of the USA.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: A cross-sectional analysis of data collected in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2013-2014).

Modulation of the ultradian human nasal cycle by sleep stage and body position.

Objective:: The nasal cycle, which is present in a significant number of people, is an ultradian side-to-side rhythm of nasal engorgement associated with cyclic autonomic activity. We studied the nasal cycle during REM/non-REM sleep stages and examined the potentially confounding influence of body position on lateralized nasal airflow.

Methods:: Left- and right-side nasal airflow was measured in six subjects during an eight-hour sleep period using nasal thermistors.

Taste Quality Confusions: Influences of Age, Smoking, PTC Taster Status, and other Subject Characteristics.

Many persons misidentify the quality of taste stimuli, a phenomenon termed "taste confusion." In this study of 1000 persons, we examined the influences of age, sex, causes of chemosensory disturbances, and genetically determined phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) taster status on taste quality confusions for four tastants (sucrose, citric acid, sodium chloride, caffeine). Overall, sour-bitter confusions were most common (19.

Unilateral olfactory sensitivity in multiple sclerosis.

It is not known whether lateralized olfactory sensitivity deficits are present in MS. Since projections from the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex are largely ipsilateral, and since both functional imaging and psychophysical studies suggest that the right side of the brain may be more involved in olfactory processing than the left, we addressed this issue by administering well-validated tests of odor detection, along with tests of odor identification, to each side of the nose of 73 MS patients and 73 age-, gender-, and race-matched normal controls. We also determined, in 63 of the MS patients, whether correlations were present between the olfactory test measures and MRI-determined lesions in brain regions ipsilateral and contralateral to the nose side that was tested.

Temporal Lobe Volume Decrements in Psychosis Spectrum Youths.

Structural brain abnormalities have been amply demonstrated in schizophrenia. These include volume decrements in the perirhinal/entorhinal regions of the ventromedial temporal lobe, which comprise the primary olfactory cortex. Olfactory impairments, which are a hallmark of schizophrenia, precede the onset of illness, distinguish adolescents experiencing prodromal symptoms from healthy youths, and may predict the transition from the prodrome to frank psychosis.

Relationship of Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) Taster Status to Olfactory and Gustatory Function in Patients with Chemosensory Disturbances.

Poor sensitivity to the bitter taste of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and related substances has been associated with a number of diseases. We determined, in patients with chemosensory dysfunction from multiple etiologies, whether PTC "tasters" (n = 511) exhibit less smell and taste dysfunction than their non-PTC-tasting counterparts (n = 432) on a comprehensive battery of olfactory and gustatory tests. The proportion of tasters (54%) in our study population was much lower than that calculated from 11 North American population studies (76.

Understanding the impact of taste changes in oncology care.

Purpose: Taste perception is frequently altered in cancer patients. The purpose of this review is to provide an update on advances in understanding of the basic biology and physiology of taste and how taste and flavor may be impacted in cancer and its treatment.

Methods: A succinct review of the literature on the biology and neurology of taste, taste evaluation, and the impact in oncology is provided.

Taste dysfunction in multiple sclerosis.

Empirical studies of taste function in multiple sclerosis (MS) are rare. Moreover, a detailed assessment of whether quantitative measures of taste function correlate with the punctate and patchy myelin-related lesions found throughout the CNS of MS patients has not been made. We administered a 96-trial test of sweet (sucrose), sour (citric acid), bitter (caffeine) and salty (NaCl) taste perception to the left and right anterior (CN VII) and posterior (CN IX) tongue regions of 73 MS patients and 73 matched controls.

Influences of age, tongue region, and chorda tympani nerve sectioning on signal detection measures of lingual taste sensitivity.

Although the ability to taste is critical for ingestion, nutrition, and quality of life, a clear understanding of the influences of age, sex, and chorda tympani (CT) resection on taste function in different regions of the anterior tongue is generally lacking. In this study we employed criterion-free signal detection analysis to assess electric and chemical taste function on multiple tongue regions in normal individuals varying in age and sex and in patients with unilateral CT resections. The subjects were 33 healthy volunteers, ranging from 18 to 87 years of age, and 9 persons, 27 to 77 years of age, with unilateral CT lesions.

T2R38 genotype is correlated with sinonasal quality of life in homozygous ΔF508 cystic fibrosis patients.

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is very prevalent in the cystic fibrosis (CF) patient population, and leads to high morbidity and markedly decreased quality of life (QOL). Identification of genetic markers that contribute to CRS symptoms in these patients can allow for risk stratification and tailoring of medical and surgical treatments. T2R38 is a bitter taste receptor expressed in the sinonasal tract, and nonfunctional alleles of this receptor have been implicated in treatment-refractory CRS in non-CF patients.

Neurotoxic exposure and impairment of the chemical senses of taste and smell.

The chemical senses of taste and smell determine the flavor of foods and beverages, guide appropriate food intake, and warn of such environmental hazards as spoiled or poisonous food, leaking natural gas, smoke, and airborne pollutants. This chapter addresses the influences of neurotoxic exposures on human chemoreception and provides basic information on the adverse influences of such exposures on rodent epithelia. The focus of the chapter is in olfaction, given dearth of empiric research on the effects of neurotoxic chemical exposures on the sense of taste, i.

The Role of Bitter and Sweet Taste Receptors in Upper Airway Immunity.

Over the past several years, taste receptors have emerged as key players in the regulation of innate immune defenses in the mammalian respiratory tract. Several cell types in the airway, including ciliated epithelial cells, solitary chemosensory cells, and bronchial smooth muscle cells, all display chemoresponsive properties that utilize taste receptors. A variety of bitter products secreted by microbes are detected with resultant downstream inflammation, increased mucous clearance, antimicrobial peptide secretion, and direct bacterial killing.

Auditory and Lower Limb Tactile Prepulse Inhibition in Primary Restless Legs Syndrome: Clues to Its Pathophysiology.

The resting sensory discomfort transiently relieved upon movement of the affected area in restless legs syndrome suggests that sensorimotor integration mechanisms, specifically gating, may be altered in the disease. The authors sought to determine the effects of prepulse auditory and tactile stimulation applied to lower limbs on the blink reflex of patients with restless legs syndrome and healthy subjects. Seventeen patients with restless legs syndrome and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were investigated.

Olfactory identification deficits and increased mortality in the community.

Objective: To examine the association between odor identification deficits and future mortality in a multiethnic community cohort of older adults.

Methods: Participants were evaluated with the 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Follow-up occurred at 2-year intervals with information on death obtained from informant interviews and the National Death Index.

Influences of hormone replacement therapy on olfactory and cognitive function in postmenopausal women.

Olfactory dysfunction can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. Since hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may protect against Alzheimer's disease in postmenopausal women, the question arises as to whether it also protects against olfactory dysfunction in such women. A total of three olfactory and 12 neurocognitive tests were administered to 432 healthy postmenopausal women with varied HRT histories.