ArticleJournal of psychiatric research2015
Burning odor-elicited anxiety in OEF/OIF combat veterans: Inverse relationship to gray matter volume in olfactory cortex.
Article in Journal of psychiatric research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Trauma-specific Grey Matter Alterations in PTSD.Scientific reports · 2016Pooled it
- Exploratory Investigation of a Brief Cognitive Behavioral Intervention and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Odor Sensitivity.Psychosomatic medicine · 2019Trial
- Odor-enhanced Visual Processing in PTSD.NeuroImage · 2025Article
- Olfactory Dysfunction in Mental Illness.Current allergy and asthma reports · 2023Review
- Case report: "Proust phenomenon" after right posterior cerebral artery occlusion.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- High trait anxiety blocks olfactory plasticity induced by aversive learning.Biological psychology · 2022Article
- Anxiety-related shifts in smell function in children and adolescents.Chemical senses · 2021Article
- Paradoxical olfactory function in combat veterans: The role of PTSD and odor factors.Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2018Article
- Preliminary evidence for differential olfactory and trigeminal processing in combat veterans with and without PTSD.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2018Article
- Brain fingerprints of olfaction: a novel structural method for assessing olfactory cortical networks in health and disease.Scientific reports · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the anatomical overlap between the brain's fear/threat and olfactory systems, a very limited number of investigations have considered the role of odors and the central olfactory system in the pathophysiology of PTSD. The goal of the present study was to assess structural differences in primary and secondary olfactory cortex between combat veterans with and without PTSD (CV + PTSD, CV-PTSD, respectively). An additional goal was to determine the relationship between gray matter volume (GMV) in olfactory cortex and the distressing properties of burning-related odors. A region of interest voxel-based morphometric (VBM) approach was used to measure GMV in olfactory cortex in a well-characterized group of CV + PTSD (n = 20) and CV-PTSD (n = 25). Prior to the MRI exam, combat-related (i.e., burning rubber) and control odors were systematically sampled and rated according to their potential for eliciting PTSD symptoms. Results showed that CV + PTSD exhibited significantly reduced GMV in anterior piriform (primary olfactory) and orbitofrontal (secondary olfactory) cortices compared to CV-PTSD (both p < .01). For the entire group, GMV in bilateral anterior piriform cortex was inversely related to burning rubber odor-elicited memories of trauma (p < .05). GMV in orbitofrontal cortex was inversely related to both clinical and laboratory measures of PTSD symptoms (all p < .05). In addition to replicating an established inverse relationship between GMV in anxiety-associated brain structures and PTSD symptomatology, the present study extends those findings by being the first report of volumetric decreases in olfactory cortex that are inversely related to odor-elicited PTSD symptoms. Potential mechanisms underlying these findings are discussed.
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