As it happens, my dissertation was about olfaction in humans. You want the anatomy? I invite you to "drink from the firehose":
The olfactory tracts, just prior to coursing ventral to the anterior perforated substance, divide into the lateral and medial olfactory stria. It is the lateral stria that contain most of the axons from the olfactory bulbs. The lateral stria project to "primary olfactory areas." Here, there is much inconsistency among authors. This has been carefully reviewed by Anthoney (1994), who catalogued inconsistencies within and among 24 recent neuroanatomy textbooks. The material in the next two paragraphs is largely drawn from his work. The term "primary olfactory areas" is often used synonymously with the terms "pyriform lobe" and "pyriform area." This "lobe/area" includes, but is not restricted to, pyriform cortex. Pyriform cortex itself is usually defined as an area roughly synonymous with periamygdaloid cortex (area 34, on the ventral surface of the temporal lobe; it is continuous with the underlying cortical nucleus of the amygdala). An overlapping area is referred to by some authors as the lateral olfactory gyrus. The pyriform lobe can additionally include the following areas. a) The prepyriform area (usually defined to be roughly equivalent to the uncus of the parahippocampal gyrus; this is just medial to area 34, but was not assigned a number by Brodmann). b) The olfactory tubercle (a structure posterior to the anterior olfactory nucleus in each hemisphere, and usually considered part of the anterior perforated substance; it is just posterior and internal to area 25). c) Entorhinal cortex (Brodmann's area 28, the anterior portion of the parahippocampal gyrus). d) The limen of the insula (the limen is a rostral part of the floor of the Sylvian fissure). These "primary" areas (however vaguely or variably defined) project to secondary areas, which include the lateral hypothalamus, the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus, and orbitofrontal cortex (which reciprocates the connections) (Anthoney, 1994; Barbas, 1993; Price et al., 1991; Yarita et al., 1980). Orbitofrontal cortex, in addition to receiving direct olfactory input from pyriform cortex, receives indirect olfactory input from the lateral hypothalamus and from the medial subdivision of the dorsomedial thalamus (Nauta & Feirtag, 1986; Parent, 1996; Yarita et al., 1980). --David Epstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
