Morphological changes in secondary, but not primary, sensory cortex in individuals with life-long olfactory sensory deprivation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117005
• Publication Date: 2020-05-30T11:53:18Z
• Authors: Moa G. Peter; Gustav Mårtensson; Elbrich M. Postma; Love Engström Nordin; Eric Westman; Sanne Boesveldt; Johan N. Lundström
• Keywords: Orbitofrontal cortex; Anosmia; Sulcus; Gyrification

Individuals with congenital sensory deprivation usually demonstrate altered brain morphology in areas associated early processing of the absent sense. Here, we aimed to establish whether this also applies individuals born without a sense smell (congenital anosmia) by comparing cerebral between 33 isolated anosmia and matched controls. We detected no morphological alterations primary olfactory (piriform) cortex. However, demonstrated gray matter volume atrophy bilateral sulci, explained decreased cortical area, curvature, sulcus depth. They further increased thickness medial orbital gyri; regions closely processing, integration, value-coding. Our results suggest that lifelong absence input does not necessarily lead cortex extend previous findings divergent orbitofrontal cortex, indicating influences different developmental processes.