Olfactory Evoked Potentials in the Rat

Routine clinical assessment of the integrity of the olfactory pathway using olfactory evoked potentials remains an elusive goal. One important difficulty arises from the uncertainty of the exact origin of the potentials: are they produced by olfactory or trigeminal elements? To resolve this problem, an animal model using the rat was developed. Amylacetate was used as an odorant stimulus, and potentials were measured and computer averaged after elimination of trigeminal and vomeronasal activity. A positive-negative wave was recorded from the olfactory bulb surface, and a negative wave often followed by a positive wave was recorded from the surface of the cerebral cortex. Measurements from the scalp surface gave comparable results. Lesioning experiments of the olfactory pathway indicate that the evoked potentials recorded at the vertex originate in the ventral forebrain, specifically in the prepyriform cortex, olfactory tubercle, and anterior olfactory nucleus.