Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Smell loss is a sensory impairment that has major consequences in many areas of daily life and for which current therapies are insufficient. A prosthesis-type technology enabling patients to sample their olfactory environment has not yet been developed. The aim of our study was, therefore, to test whether stimulation of the intranasal trigeminal system by a device combining an artificial nose with an intranasal electrical stimulator will enable patients to detect and discriminate odorant molecules. Four experiments involving normosmic individuals ( n = 13) and patients with olfactory loss ( n = 52) showed that individuals were able to detect their olfactory environment using the device. For discrimination, the results are less clear-cut but show that most patients can distinguish between two external stimuli. Although this substitution approach does not allow patients to smell real odors, it is a genuine first substitution solution that we could imagine offering to patients in the future.
Source: Science Advances
Authors: Halina B. Stanley, Clémentine Lipp, Coralie Mignot, Susanne Weise, Konstantinos Garefis, Maxime Fieux, Evangelia Tsakiropoulou, Sotiria Genetzaki, Romain Dubreuil, Camille Ferdenzi, Marina Carulli, Michele Bertolini, Marco Rossoni, Arnaud Bertsch, Juergen Brugger, Thomas Hummel, Iordanis Konstantinidis, Moustafa Bensafi
Institutions: Lyon 1 Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Inserm, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Technische Universität Dresden, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Papageorgiou General Hospital, Université de Lyon, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Lyon Sud, Politecnico di Milano
Language: English
Subfield: Sensory Systems
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W4416775287