Date of Award

1992

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Wm. Drew Gouvier

Abstract

Temporal lobe cortex was found to be essential to the initial processing of odor information within the cortex. This brain area can recognize previously smelled odors independent of damaged orbitofrontal cortex. In contrast, orbitofrontal cortex was found to be essential to identifying odors and attaching a verbal or nonverbal label to odor stimuli. These findings were observed in three brain-damaged groups, those with left hemisphere stroke (CVA), right hemisphere CVA, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The differential pattern of performance observed for CVA and TBI subjects on odor identification and odor recognition tasks suggests that temporal lobe and orbitofrontal olfactory areas have distinct roles in odor memory functioning. Temporal olfactory cortex can process odor information for storage in memory and can use that information to recognize previously smelled odors, even when orbitofrontal olfactory areas are damaged. However, odor identification using either a verbal or nonverbal (pictorial) label requires intact orbitofrontal olfactory functioning, and orbitofrontal areas appear to be dependent upon temporal areas for odor information input. The Connecticut Chemosensory Clinical Research Center Test (CCCRC) was used to test olfaction. In a separate pilot study, a highly compatible nonverbal odor identification procedure and a 15 minute delayed odor recognition procedure were added to enhance the study of olfactory memory.

Pages

141

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5409

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