Altered olfactory processing and increased insula activity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: an fMRI study

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients show increased insula activation to disgust-inducing images compared to healthy controls (HC). We explored whether this disgust reactivity was also present in the olfactory domain by conducting the first fMRI study of olfaction in OCD. Neural activation in response to pleasant and unpleasant odors (vs. unscented air) was investigated in 15 OCD and 15 HC participants using fMRI. OCD participants (vs. HC) had increased left anterior insula activation to unpleasant odors (vs.

Source: Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging - February 7, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Heather A. Berlin, Emily R. Stern, Johnny Ng, Sam Zhang, David Rosenthal, Rachel Turetzky, Cheuk Tang, Wayne Goodman Source Type: research