Olfaction and gustation in blindness: a state of the art of the literature

To date, there are quite a few studies assessing olfaction and gustation in blindness, with great variability in sample size, participants' age, blindness onset and smell and taste evaluation methods. Indeed, the evaluation of olfactory and gustatory performance can differ depending on several factors, including cultural differences. Therefore, here we analysed through a narrative review, all the works reporting a smell and taste assessment in blind individuals during the last 130 years, trying to summarize and address the knowledge in this field

METROPOLITAN AGRICULTURE, SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMICS AND THE FOOD-CITY RELATIONSHIP IN SOUTHERN EUROPE

Peri-urban agriculture is a pivotal issue in the debate on sustainable management of land in metropolitan regions worldwide. Multiple socioeconomic and environmental solutions introduced by new models of peri-urban agriculture are playing an important role in planning and management of fringe land. The recent development of peri-urban agriculture in Southern European cities was supposed to reflect latent, crisis-driven processes of 'coming back to land': new land has been extensively cultivated, and new relations have been created between farmers, communities and territories within peri-urban areas. This study describes some relevant experiences of peri-urban farming in 6 metropolitan regions (Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Athens, Istanbul) representative of different socioeconomic contexts in Southern Europe, outlining strengths and weaknesses in the use of fringe land for cropping, and evidencing relevant implications for urban sustainability

Dataset of Verbal evaluation of Umami taste in Europe

The data presented here includes verbal descriptors used by Finnish, German and Italian subjects to express the quality of an umami taste solution offered in a blind fashion. The dataset refers to the research article “A cross-cultural survey of Umami Familiarity in European Countries” [1]. Data shows that a total of 106 different classes of words, including synonyms, were used by the Finnish group, 64 different classes of words, including synonyms, were used by the German group, and a total of 70 different classes of words, including synonyms, were used by the Italian group. The descriptors are reported in Excel tables and visualized in a bar graph where the length of the bars indicates the number of given answers for each class.Peer reviewe

Pain, smell, and taste in adults: a narrative review of multisensory perception and interaction

Every day our sensory systems perceive and integrate a variety of stimuli containing information vital for our survival. Pain acts as a protective warning system, eliciting a response to remove harmful stimuli; it may also be a symptom of an illness or present as a disease itself. There is a growing need for additional pain-relieving therapies involving the multisensory integration of smell and taste in pain modulation, an approach that may provide new strategies for the treatment and management of pain. While pain, smell, and taste share common features and are strongly linked to emotion and cognition, their interaction has been poorly explored. In this review, we provide an overview of the literature on pain modulation by olfactory and gustatory substances. It includes adult human studies investigating measures of pain threshold, tolerance, intensity, and/or unpleasantness. Due to the limited number of studies currently available, we have structured this review as a narrative in which we comment on experimentally induced and clinical pain separately on pain-smell and pain-taste interaction. Inconsistent study findings notwithstanding, pain, smell, and taste seem to interact at both the behavioral and the neural levels. Pain intensity and unpleasantness seem to be affected more by olfactory substances, whereas pain threshold and tolerance are influenced by gustatory substances. Few pilot studies to date have investigated these effects in clinical populations. While the current results are promising for the future, more evidence is needed to elucidate the link between the chemical senses and pain. Doing so has the potential to improve and develop novel options for pain treatment

Investigating body composition in wheelchair athletes

Subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) are at risk for adverse changes in body composition (BC), which are harmful for their health and relevant to sport performance. This study investigated whole-body and regional BC in wheelchair athletes (WA) by comparing tetraplegic and paraplegic WA with a larger sample of healthy males athletes. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used by one operator to measure subtotal (total-body less head) and regional (arms, legs and trunk) body composition (lean mass [LM], bone mineral content [BMC], fat mass [FM] and fat mass percentage [%FM]) in twenty-seven male WA aged 30.0±9.4y with chronic SCI. WA were classified as tetraplegic (lesion above T1; Tetra, n=10) and paraplegic (lesion at T1 and below; Para, n=17) and matched each to three healthy males athletes (n=81) on the basis of DXA area and BMI. BC outcomes were compared in Tetra and Para as well as Tetra and Para, and their respective control with the t-test for independent samples. Alpha value was set at 0.05 and p-values corrected for multiple comparisons (pc; Benjamini and Hochberg procedure). Percent FM was significant higher in Tetra vs. Para at the subtotal and regional level (0.02

Parkinson’s disease and taste function: a prospective investigation at three, four and five years from the first evaluation

It is well-known that Parkinson’s disease is characterized by a variety of non-motor symptoms. A gustatory deficit is hypothesized to be one of them. Because the few previous works assessed taste in a case-control way, the aim of our study was to investigate taste function in Parkinson’s disease patients in a longitudinal fashion, after three, four and five years from the first evaluation. A group of 26 patients was re-examined (16 men, 10 women; age range: 54-88 years; mean age: 70.9 ± 8.4 years). As previously, taste function was assessed by means of the Whole Mouth Test (WMT) and Taste Strips Test (TST). Olfaction was also evaluated with the Sniffin’ Sticks Identification Test (SST). All patients were able to understand and complete the procedure. Both for smell (p=0.45, Mann-Whitney U-Test) and taste results (WMT: p=0.234, Mann-Whitney U-Test; TST: p=0.747, Mann-Whitney U-Test) even if there is a score decrease, no significative difference was found between first and second evaluation, so suggesting a quite steady condition of chemosensory impairment across time. This could be in support of the hypothesis reported by various studies that an important taste dysfunction can be linked to the advanced phases of the disease associated with cortical involvement. Considering the objective difficulty in finding Parkinson patients suitable for this kind of evaluation in time (e.g. comorbidities onset, cognitive impairment) future research designed on a multicentric recruitment is needed

Unpleasant olfactory and gustatory stimuli increase pain unpleasantness in patients with chronic oral burning pain: an exploratory study

Background: Despite mounting evidence for the powerful influence of smell and taste substances in experimental pain, our knowledge of their effects in the clinical context is scarce, especially for patients with chronic oral burning pain. To fill this gap, we investigated the effect of olfactory and gustatory stimuli on pain perception in patients with chronic oral burning pain, a disabling condition that is difficult to manage and treat. Methods: Twenty-two patients with chronic oral burning pain underwent testing with a variety of olfactory and gustatory substances (pleasant, neutral, unpleasant) in multisensory interaction. The order of testing was randomized. Perception of pain intensity and unpleasantness was evaluated on a numerical rating scale at baseline and immediately after each test trial. Results: Pain unpleasantness but not pain intensity was found to be modulated by chemosensory stimuli. Unpleasant olfactory and gustatory stimuli increased the perception of pain unpleasantness compared to pleasant and neutral stimuli. Pain unpleasantness after unpleasant olfactory and gustatory stimuli correlated with psychological questionnaire subscale scores for distress (CORE-OM) and emotional awareness (TAS-20). Conclusions: Our findings suggest a role of unpleasant chemosensory stimuli in increasing the perception of pain unpleasantness in patients with chronic oral burning. The lack of an effect on pain intensity indicates a dissociation between sensory and affective pain components. Future research is needed to further study the association between chemosensory stimuli and emotional and subjective aspects in modulating chronic oral burning pain

Neurodegeneration-associated proteins in human olfactory neurons collected by nasal brushing

The olfactory neuroepithelium is located in the upper vault of the nasal cavity, lying on the olfactory cleft and projecting into the dorsal portion of the superior and middle turbinates beyond the mid-portion of the nasal septum. It is composed of a variety of cell types including olfactory sensory neurons, supporting glial-like cells, microvillar cells, and basal stem cells. The cells of the neuroepithelium are often intermingled with respiratory and metaplastic epithelial cells. Olfactory neurons undergo a constant self-renewal in the timespan of 2\u20133 months; they are directly exposed to the external environment, and thus they are vulnerable to physical and chemical injuries. The latter might induce metabolic perturbations and ultimately be the cause of cell death. However, the lifespan of olfactory neurons is biologically programmed, and for this reason, these cells have an accelerated metabolic cycle leading to an irreversible apoptosis. These characteristics make these cells suitable for research related to nerve cell degeneration and aging. Recent studies have shown that a non-invasive and painless olfactory brushing procedure allows an efficient sampling from the olfactory neuroepithelium. This approach allows to detect the pathologic prion protein in patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob disease, using the real-time quaking-induced conversion assay. Investigating the expression of all the proteins associated to neurodegeneration in the cells of the olfactory mucosa is a novel approach toward understanding the pathogenesis of human neurodegenerative diseases. Our aim was to investigate the expression of \u3b1-synuclein, \u3b2-amyloid, tau, and TDP-43 in the olfactory neurons of normal subjects. We showed that these proteins that are involved in neurodegenerative diseases are expressed in olfactory neurons. These findings raise the question on whether a relationship exists between the mechanisms of protein aggregation that occur in the olfactory bulb during the early stage of the neurodegenerative process and the protein misfolding occurring in the olfactory neuroepithelium

Hedonicity in functional motor disorders: a chemosensory study assessing taste

The aim of this study was to explore hedonicity to basic tastes in patients with functional motor disorders (FMDs) that are often associated with impairment in emotional processing. We recruited 20 FMD patients and 24 healthy subjects, matched for age and sex. Subjects were asked to rate the hedonic sensation (i.e., pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant) on a\u2009-\u200910 to +10 scale to the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter) at different concentrations, and neutral stimuli (i.e., no taste stimulation) by means of the Taste Strips Test. Anxiety, depression, and alexithymia were assessed. FMD patients rated the highest concentration of sweet taste (6.7\u2009\ub1\u20092.6) as significantly more pleasant than controls (4.7\u2009\ub1\u20092.5, p\u2009=\u20090.03), and the neutral stimuli significantly more unpleasant (patients:\u2009-\u20090.7\u2009\ub1\u20090.4, controls: 0.1\u2009\ub1\u20090.4, p\u2009=\u20090.013). Hedonic ratings were not correlated to anxiety, depression, or alexithymia scores. Hedonic response to taste is altered in FMD patients. This preliminary finding might result from abnormal interaction between sensory processing and emotional valence

Post-traumatic taste disorders: presentation of three meaningful cases

Since the late 1800s there are reports of post-traumatic anosmia [1], but few studies investigated post-traumatic gustatory deficit and adopted validated evaluation tests [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Post-traumatic ageusia is rare, occurring in ~ 0.5% of head traumas, while a gustatory deficit is more frequently referred (5-7%) when olfaction is impaired [2,4]. Unlike olfaction, gustatory sensation is mediated by several cranial nerves (VII, IX, X) and taste receptors are widely spread in the oral cavity, so that taste is considered a “robust” sense. Peripheral and/or central mechanisms may be involved in the genesis of post-traumatic gustatory dysfunction. Beyond a reduction/loss of gustatory function following a trauma, taste changes (dysgeusia) may occur, even if they are reported to be rare [7,8,9]. Gustatory disorders might not be immediately reported because patient often pays attention to other post-traumatic sequelae. Especially when persistent, taste deficits might be particularly relevant for patients’ quality of life. Physicians are often not well-informed on the possible implications or treatment strategies. Fifty-three consecutive patients with previous head trauma and chemosensory disorders were recruited by the olfactory and taste research group of the University of Verona. Every patient underwent a careful clinical examination, olfactory and gustatory testing by Sniffin’Sticks Extended test, Whole Mouth taste test and Taste Strips Test respectively (Burghart, Germany). Among them, we found 10 cases with hyposmia, 43 with functional anosmia, while 10 cases showed taste deficits (dysgeusia: n = 3, dysgeusia with hypogeusia: n = 1, hypogeusia: n = 5, ageusia: n = 1). Here we report anatomical, clinical correlations and detailed description of three cases representing central and peripheral injury patterns