Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 May;3(5):501-512.
doi: 10.1038/s41562-019-0556-z. Epub 2019 Mar 11.

Human non-olfactory cognition phase-locked with inhalation

Ofer Perl  1   2 , Aharon Ravia  3   4 , Mica Rubinson  5 , Ami Eisen  5 , Timna Soroka  3   4 , Nofar Mor  3   4 , Lavi Secundo  3   4 , Noam Sobel  6   7
Affiliations

Human non-olfactory cognition phase-locked with inhalation

Ofer Perl et al. Nat Hum Behav. 2019 May.

Abstract

Olfactory stimulus acquisition is perfectly synchronized with inhalation, which tunes neuronal ensembles for incoming information. Because olfaction is an ancient sensory system that provided a template for brain evolution, we hypothesized that this link persisted, and therefore nasal inhalations may also tune the brain for acquisition of non-olfactory information. To test this, we measured nasal airflow and electroencephalography during various non-olfactory cognitive tasks. We observed that participants spontaneously inhale at non-olfactory cognitive task onset and that such inhalations shift brain functional network architecture. Concentrating on visuospatial perception, we observed that nasal inhalation drove increased task-related brain activity in specific task-related brain regions and resulted in improved performance accuracy in the visuospatial task. Thus, mental processes with no link to olfaction are nevertheless phase-locked with nasal inhalation, consistent with the notion of an olfaction-based template in the evolution of human brain function.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Craven, B. A., Paterson, E. G. & Settles, G. S. The fluid dynamics of canine olfaction: unique nasal airflow patterns as an explanation of macrosmia. J. R. Soc. Interface 7, 933–943 (2009). - DOI
    1. Grosmaitre, X., Santarelli, L. C., Tan, J., Luo, M. & Ma, M. Dual functions of mammalian olfactory sensory neurons as odor detectors and mechanical sensors. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 348–354 (2007). - DOI
    1. Verhagen, J. V., Wesson, D. W., Netoff, T. I., White, J. A. & Wachowiak, M. Sniffing controls an adaptive filter of sensory input to the olfactory bulb. Nat. Neurosci. 10, 631–639 (2007). - DOI
    1. Shusterman, R., Smear, M. C., Koulakov, A. A. & Rinberg, D. Precise olfactory responses tile the sniff cycle. Nat. Neurosci. 14, 1039–1044 (2011). - DOI
    1. Smear, M., Shusterman, R., O’Connor, R., Bozza, T. & Rinberg, D. Perception of sniff phase in mouse olfaction. Nature 479, 397–400 (2011). - DOI

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources