Cerebral activation to intranasal chemosensory trigeminal stimulation

Although numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) studies have been performed on the processing of olfactory information, the intranasal trigeminal system so far has not received much attention. In the present study, we sought to delineate the neural correlates of trigeminal stimulation using carbon dioxide (CO2) presented to the left or right nostril. Fifteen right-handed men underwent FMRI using single runs of 3 conditions (CO2 in the right and the left nostrils and an olfactory stimulant-phenyl ethyl alcohol-in the right nostril). As expected, olfactory activations were located in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), amygdala, and rostral insula. For trigeminal stimulation, activations were found in "trigeminal" and "olfactory" regions including the pre- and postcentral gyrus, the cerebellum, the ventrolateral thalamus, the insula, the contralateral piriform cortex, and the OFC. Left compared with right side stimulations resulted in stronger cerebellar and brain stem activations; right versus left stimulation resulted in stronger activations of the superior temporal sulcus and OFC. These results suggest a trigeminal processing system that taps into similar cortical regions and yet is separate from that of the olfactory system. The overlapping pattern of cortical activation for trigeminal and olfactory stimuli is assumed to be due to the intimate connections in the processing of information from the 2 major intranasal chemosensory systems.