New study from the Lab reveals olfactory brain networks
In a new study, published in Human Brain Mapping, SCI-lab members Georgios Menelaou and Jonas Olofsson teamed up with researchers from Harvard University, Northwestern University and Karolinska Institute to understand how the smell brain regions are connected to deeper brain networks – the so-called Default-Mode Network (DMN) – which is thought to be responsible for concepts and meaning. The connections were measured with resting-state fMRI using a stepwise connectivity method. They found that the sense of smell was different from other senses by having a closer connective pathway to the DMN. They also found that the olfactory regions reached the DMN via two distinct pathways in the brain. The research gives insights into how the sense of smell connects to other parts of the brain in unique ways. The work was sponsored by the Swedish Research Council and the Wallenberg Foundations.