Intranasal Trigeminal Perception
Intranasal trigeminal system interacts with the olfactory system to provide a complete chemosensory perception of the odorants stimuli. The perception of nasal patency and nasal airflow is also mediated by trigeminal afferents. The trigeminal system is th
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Philippe Rombaux, Caroline Huart, Basile Landis, and Thomas Hummel
Keywords
Chemosensory function • Trigeminal • Olfaction • Reflexes • Somatosensory function
Core Messages
Ph. Rombaux, MD, PhD (*) Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Clinique Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels Belgium Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels Belgium HNS & ENT Department, Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Brussels, Belgium C. Huart, MD Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium B. Landis, PhD Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Smell and Taste Clinic, Clinic of the Technical University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, Dresden 01307, Germany University of Bern Swiss, Berne, Switzerland T. Hummel, MD, PhD Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Smell and Taste Clinic, Clinic of the Technical University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, Dresden 01307, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
• Intranasal trigeminal system mediates the sensation of temperature, pressure, perception of nasal airflow during breathing, nociception and participates to the chemosensory perception of odorant stimuli. • Chemosensory perception is not only mediated by free nerve endings in the nasal mucosa but also by some trigeminal fibers in close contact with solitary chemosensory cells. • Besides the sensory nerves, the parasympathetic and the orthosympathetic systems play an important role in the normal physiology of the nose • Testing the intranasal trigeminal function, both psychophysically and electrophysiologically, is possible and may be used in the assessment of a patient with a chemosensory dysfunction. • Healthy subjects need to have intact trigeminal and olfactory systems to have a full complete picture of the chemosensory stimulus. • Olfactory and trigeminal systems interact both at a central and peripheral level.
T.M. Önerci (ed.), Nasal Physiology and Pathophysiology of Nasal Disorders, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-37250-6_17, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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• In patients with olfactory loss, a compensatory mechanism probably exists between the olfactory and the trigeminal systems.
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Introduction
The nasal mucosa through the intranasal trigeminal nerve is a full sensory organ, functionally organized and responsible for both the nasal patency perception and the chemosensory perception and also responsible to a certain degree for nasal inflammation. The primary function of the intranasal trigeminal system is to protect the upper and lower airways for potential life-threatening substances acting as a sentinel to shorten or stop inspiration reflexively. Besides this protective somatosensory function, the intranasal trigeminal system also helps to the global chemosensory perception with the olfactory system. Indeed, most of the odorants stimulate the neural olfactory and intranasal trigeminal systems (Doty 1995). Finally
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