Unilateral olfactory perception and magical ideation

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_83090A903131
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Unilateral olfactory perception and magical ideation
Journal
Schizophrenia Research
Author(s)
Mohr C., Rohrenbach C. M., Laska M., Brugger P.
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2001
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
47
Number
2-3
Pages
255-264
Language
english
Notes
0920-9964 (Print) Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Abstract
We assessed olfactory detection thresholds and discrimination abilities in 40 healthy right-handers (20 women and 20 men). All subjects were also required to complete the Magical Ideation (MI) scale, a well-validated 30-item schizotypy inventory. Over both nostrils, we found elevated thresholds for subjects with high MI scores (at or above the median score of 9.0) compared with those with low scores. In men but not women, specifically left-nostril acuity was inversely correlated to MI raw scores. MI was unrelated to olfactory discrimination performance. These results suggest an association, at least in healthy men, between even moderate signs of schizotypy and deficits in odor detection. The selective impairment of left-nostril performance adds to the growing evidence for left temporal lobe functional abnormalities in people high on MI. This laterality effect is known from previous studies in patients with schizophrenia. However, as a rule, in psychiatric patients olfactory identification rather than simple detection performance was found to be impaired, indicating that the integration of odor information is affected at different levels of processing in schizotypy compared with schizophrenia. Work with completely normal subjects may reasonably complement clinical studies of olfactory perception. Among its advantages are the good subject compliance and the absence of medication effects.
Keywords
Adult Female Functional Laterality/*physiology Humans Male Middle Aged Perceptual Disorders/*complications/physiopathology Schizotypal Personality Disorder/*complications/*diagnosis/physiopathology Sensory Thresholds/physiology Signal Detection, Psychological Smell/*physiology Temporal Lobe/physiopathology
Create date
17/01/2011 20:07
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:43
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