Title:Chronic Stress Impacts on Olfactory System
Volume: 14
Issue: 4
Author(s): Ti-Fei Yuan, Gonglin Hou and Oscar Arias-Carrion
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Chronic stress, limbic system, neurogenesis, olfaction.
Abstract: Chronic stress has detrimental effects on brain structures and functions. Previous studies
mainly focused on prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, given their well-described roles in cognition and emotive
processing. Chronic stress also leads to changes in other neural circuits, such as the olfactory system. Olfactory deficits
were reported in both animal models and patients with depression. The present review summarizes the evidence linking
chronic stress to neuropathology in the olfactory system, and analyzes the potential mechanistic insights underlying these
changes. We propose also that olfactory system-targeting therapies could be beneficial to certain symptoms of patients
suffering from stress-related neurological diseases.
