Dan Wesson receives NIH supplement to investigate the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the olfactory system.
The supplement is for the grant: “Inter-regional coding of odor valence by neural ensembles”
This work builds off of previous and ongoing work in the Wesson lab to test the hypothesis that AD neuropathology impairs both the neural formation and behavioral expression of odor valence. The brain basis for olfactory valence is a clinically-relevant topic with wide-spread implications for health and function. Aberrant hedonic responses to food odors may decrease food intake. Such alterations are known to exacerbate clinical outcomes in diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in which cachexia is a frequent cause of death. The results of the aims, which include a collaboration with an expert in dementia and neuropathology, Dr. Patrik Brundin at the Van Andel Institute, will yield much needed information regarding mechanisms whereby AD impairs olfactory function in manners which may exacerbate a detrimental clinical outcome.
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