Abstract
Some studies have reported that the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) increases its activation relative to the intensity of an olfactory stimulus. On the other hand, some studies have suggested that this phenomenon is not observed. The procedural difference of the 2 groups of investigations was the concurrent presentation, or not, of an additional cue. Our study focused on this difference and involved a neuro-imaging technique to investigate the effects, on 6 participants, of a verbal cue and changes of olfactory stimulus intensity. We observed that when the verbal cue was absent, activation of the OFC was related to the stimulus intensity. This result was in agreement with the observations of previous studies. However, although activation of the OFC is linearly related to the intensity of the olfactory stimulus when other cues are present this linear relationship may become unclear.
