Odor valence modulates cortico-cortical interactions: a preliminary study using DCM for EEG

Olfaction and emotions share common networks in the brain. However, little is known on how the emotional content of odors modulate dynamically the cortico-cortical interactions within these networks. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effect of odor valence on effective connectivity through the use of Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM). We recorded electroencephalographic (EEG) data from healthy subjects performing a passive odor task of odorants with different valence. Once defined a fully-connected a priori network comprising the pyriform cortex (PC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and entorhinal cortex (EC), we tested the modulatory effect of odor valence on their causal interactions at the group level using the parametric empirical bayes (PEB) framework. Results show that both pleasant and the unpleasant odors have an inhibitory effect on the connection from EC to PC, whereas we did not observe any effect for the neutral odor. Moreover, the odor with positive valence has a stronger influence on connectivity dynamics compared to the negative odor. Although preliminary, our results suggest that odor valence can modulate brain connectivity.