Applying a new version of the Brazilian-Portuguese UPSIT smell test in Brazil

Standardized olfactory tests are now available to quantitatively assess disorders of olfaction. A Brazilian-Portuguese version of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) is currently being developed specifically for the Brazilian population. The most recent Brazilian-Portuguese version of the UPSIT (UPSIT-Br2) was administered to 88 Brazilian subjects who had no history of neurological or otorhinolaryngological disease. UPSIT-Br2 scores decreased with age, were lower in men than in women, and were lower in subjects with lower income. The degree to which the poorer performance of subjects with lower socio-economic status reflects lack of familiarity with test items is not known. Although this version of the UPSIT provides a sensitive and useful test of smell function for the Brazilian population, a revision of some test items is needed to achieve comparable norms to those found using the North American UPSIT in the United States

Parkinson disease clinical subtypes: Key features & clinical milestones

OBJECTIVES: Based on multi-domain classification of Parkinson disease (PD) subtypes, we sought to determine the key features that best differentiate subtypes and the utility of PD subtypes to predict clinical milestones. METHODS: Prospective cohort of 162 PD participants with ongoing, longitudinal follow-up. Latent class analysis (LCA) delineated subtypes based on score patterns across baseline motor, cognitive, and psychiatric measures. Discriminant analyses identified key features that distinguish subtypes at baseline. Cox regression models tested PD subtype differences in longitudinal conversion to clinical milestones, including deep brain stimulation (DBS), dementia, and mortality. RESULTS: LCA identified distinct subtypes: motor only (N = 63) characterized by primary motor deficits; psychiatric & motor (N = 17) characterized by prominent psychiatric symptoms and moderate motor deficits; cognitive & motor (N = 82) characterized by impaired cognition and moderate motor deficits. Depression, executive function, and apathy best discriminated subtypes. Since enrollment, 22 had DBS, 48 developed dementia, and 46 have died. Although there were no subtype differences in rate of DBS, dementia occurred at a higher rate in the cognitive & motor subtype. Surprisingly, mortality risk was similarly elevated for both cognitive & motor and psychiatric & motor subtypes compared to the motor only subtype (relative risk = 3.15, 2.60). INTERPRETATION: Psychiatric and cognitive features, rather than motor deficits, distinguish clinical PD subtypes and predict greater risk of subsequent dementia and mortality. These results emphasize the value of multi-domain assessments to better characterize clinical variability in PD. Further, differences in dementia and mortality rates demonstrate the prognostic utility of PD subtypes

Sensory Measurements: Coordination and Standardization

Do sensory measurements deserve the label of “measurement”? We argue that they do. They fit with an epistemological view of measurement held in current philosophy of science, and they face the same kinds of epistemological challenges as physical measurements do: the problem of coordination and the problem of standardization. These problems are addressed through the process of “epistemic iteration,” for all measurements. We also argue for distinguishing the problem of standardization from the problem of coordination. To exemplify our claims, we draw on olfactory performance tests, especially studies linking olfactory decline to neurodegenerative disorders

On the scent of sexual attraction

A study in the current issue of BMC Biology has identified a mouse major urinary protein as a pheromone that attracts female mice to male urine marks and induces a learned attraction to the volatile urinary odor of the producer. See research article http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/7

Rethinking Design : A Dialogue on Anti-Racism and Art Activism from a Decolonial Perspective

This chapter focuses on feminist anti-racist activism from a decolonial perspective in the field of cultural production. The authors analyze racialized and racist representations in Finland, and propose interventions from a decolonial perspective. We propose a number of strategies in the field of representation to create non-stereotypical and demeaning racist images, in order to challenge and transform racialized representational practices. We analyze our experience of Finland through concepts such as the white savior complex, white fragility and racial illiteracy to grasp the specificity of the ways through which racism is given meaning and acted upon.Peer reviewe

Dissociated Representations of Pleasant and Unpleasant Olfacto-Trigeminal Mixtures: An fMRI Study

How the pleasantness of chemosensory stimuli such as odorants or intranasal trigeminal compounds is processed in the human brain has been the focus of considerable recent interest. Yet, so far, only the unimodal form of this hedonic processing has been explored, and not its bimodal form during crossmodal integration of olfactory and trigeminal stimuli. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate this question. To this end, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in an experiment comparing brain activation related to a pleasant and a relatively unpleasant olfacto-trigeminal mixture, and to their individual components (CO2 alone, Orange alone, Rose alone). Results revealed first common neural activity patterns in response to both mixtures in a number of regions: notably the superior temporal gyrus and the caudate nucleus. Common activations were also observed in the insula, although the pleasant mixture activated the right insula whereas the unpleasant mixture activated the left insula. However, specific activations were observed in anterior cingulate gyrus and the ventral tegmental area only during the perception of the pleasant mixture. These findings emphasized for the firs time the involvement of the latter structures in processing of pleasantness during crossmodal integration of chemosensory stimuli

Telomere Shortening Impairs Regeneration of the Olfactory Epithelium in Response to Injury but Not Under Homeostatic Conditions

Atrophy of the olfactory epithelium (OE) associated with impaired olfaction and dry nose represents one of the most common phenotypes of human aging. Impairment in regeneration of a functional olfactory epithelium can also occur in response to injury due to infection or nasal surgery. These complications occur more frequently in aged patients. Although age is the most unifying risk factor for atrophic changes and functional decline of the olfactory epithelium, little is known about molecular mechanisms that could influence maintenance and repair of the olfactory epithelium. Here, we analyzed the influence of telomere shortening (a basic mechanism of cellular aging) on homeostasis and regenerative reserve in response to chemical induced injury of the OE in late generation telomere knockout mice (G3 mTerc−/−) with short telomeres compared to wild type mice (mTerc+/+) with long telomeres. The study revealed no significant influence of telomere shortening on homeostatic maintenance of the OE during mouse aging. In contrast, the regenerative response to chemical induced injury of the OE was significantly impaired in G3 mTerc−/− mice compared to mTerc+/+ mice. Seven days after chemical induced damage, G3 mTerc−/− mice exhibited significantly enlarged areas of persisting atrophy compared to mTerc+/+ mice (p = 0.031). Telomere dysfunction was associated with impairments in cell proliferation in the regenerating epithelium. Deletion of the cell cycle inhibitor, Cdkn1a (p21) rescued defects in OE regeneration in telomere dysfunctional mice. Together, these data indicate that telomere shortening impairs the regenerative capacity of the OE by impairing cell cycle progression in a p21-dependent manner. These findings could be relevant for the impairment in OE function in elderly people

The Smell of Age: Perception and Discrimination of Body Odors of Different Ages

Our natural body odor goes through several stages of age-dependent changes in chemical composition as we grow older. Similar changes have been reported for several animal species and are thought to facilitate age discrimination of an individual based on body odors, alone. We sought to determine whether humans are able to discriminate between body odor of humans of different ages. Body odors were sampled from three distinct age groups: Young (20–30 years old), Middle-age (45–55), and Old-age (75–95) individuals. Perceptual ratings and age discrimination performance were assessed in 41 young participants. There were significant differences in ratings of both intensity and pleasantness, where body odors from the Old-age group were rated as less intense and less unpleasant than body odors originating from Young and Middle-age donors. Participants were able to discriminate between age categories, with body odor from Old-age donors mediating the effect also after removing variance explained by intensity differences. Similarly, participants were able to correctly assign age labels to body odors originating from Old-age donors but not to body odors originating from other age groups. This experiment suggests that, akin to other animals, humans are able to discriminate age based on body odor alone and that this effect is mediated mainly by body odors emitted by individuals of old age

Principles of Glomerular Organization in the Human Olfactory Bulb – Implications for Odor Processing

Olfactory sensory neurons (OSN) in mice express only 1 of a possible 1,100 odor receptors (OR) and axons from OSNs expressing the same odor receptor converge into ∼2 of the 1,800 glomeruli in each olfactory bulb (OB) in mice; this yields a convergence ratio that approximates 2∶1, 2 glomeruli/OR. Because humans express only 350 intact ORs, we examined human OBs to determine if the glomerular convergence ratio of 2∶1 established in mice was applicable to humans. Unexpectedly, the average number of human OB glomeruli is >5,500 yielding a convergence ratio of ∼16∶1. The data suggest that the initial coding of odor information in the human OB may differ from the models developed for rodents and that recruitment of additional glomeruli for subpopulations of ORs may contribute to more robust odor representation