Introduction

Olfactory dysfunction is an early marker of neurological disease and a common symptom in psychotic disorders. Previous anatomical and functional research suggests that sex effects may be crucial in the assessment of the olfactory system. Nonetheless, the neural mechanisms through which the factor sex impacts olfactory perception are still not well understood. In this context, we use fMRI to investigate sex differences in the passive processing of chemical stimuli, in order to obtain new neuroscientific data that may help improve the assessment of odor perception.

Methods

Thirty healthy subjects (17 women) were stimulated with mint and butanol (event-related design) in a 3.0-T MRI scanner. A one-sample t test analysis was performed in order to observe olfactory-related activations. Intergroup differences (women vs. men) and the influence of each aroma were analyzed using a 2 × 2 ANOVA and post hoc contrasts.

Results

Men and women showed differential activity (males > females) in right superior/middle temporal areas, the right inferior frontal cortex, and the hypothalamus. Both groups showed a predominance of the right hemisphere for the processing of odors.

Conclusion

Functional differences between women and men in olfaction are not restricted to specific sensory areas and reflect a more general sex-dependent effect in multisensory integration processes.

Implications

Considering sex differences is essential in order to develop more specific and efficient strategies for the assessment and rehabilitation of the olfactory system and for the interpretation of the olfactory loss as an early biomarker of neurological and psychiatric diseases.

中文翻译：

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嗅觉系统中的性别差异：功能性MRI研究

介绍

嗅觉功能障碍是神经系统疾病的早期标志，是精神病的常见症状。先前的解剖学和功能研究表明，性别效应可能对嗅觉系统的评估至关重要。但是，关于性别因素影响嗅觉感知的神经机制仍然不甚了解。在这种情况下，我们使用功能磁共振成像技术研究化学刺激的被动处理中的性别差异，以获得新的神经科学数据，以帮助改善对气味感知的评估。

方法

在3.0-T MRI扫描仪中用薄荷和丁醇（事件相关设计）刺激了30名健康受试者（17名女性）。为了观察与嗅觉有关的激活，进行了一个样本的t检验分析。使用2×2方差分析和事后对比分析群体间差异（男女之间）和每种香气的影响。

结果

男性和女性在右上/中颞部区域，右下额叶皮层和下丘脑表现出不同的活动（男性>女性）。两组都显示出右半球占主导地位。

结论

男女在嗅觉上的功能差异不仅限于特定的感官区域，而且反映出在多感官融合过程中更普遍的性别依赖性效应。

含义

考虑性别差异对于开发更具体，有效的策略来评估和恢复嗅觉系统以及将嗅觉丧失解释为神经和精神疾病的早期生物标记至关重要。