The Olfactory System in Health and Disease
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Systems Neuroscience".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2026 | Viewed by 3
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The sense of smell is an ancient sensory system that is part of the brain’s limbic network, controlling emotions and drives. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, olfaction has been implicated in several neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. For example, a rogues’ gallery of disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and multiple sclerosis are all accompanied by some loss of smell. Indeed, in many cases, olfactory decline presages the more devastating symptoms of these conditions. Mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are also associated with olfactory dysfunction, both as causes and effects. Thus, the olfactory system is and will likely remain a key component of efforts to discover etiologies, treatments, and eventual cures for a host of brain diseases which continue to cause so much human suffering. In this Special Issue, we invite original research and focused reviews from both basic and clinical scientists on any topic investigating the olfactory system in health and disease. Works using modern technologies to examine the nexus between olfaction and neurological disease are of particular interest, though novel work advancing the basic science of normal olfaction is also welcome.
Dr. David M. Coppola
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- Alzheimer’s
- Parkinson’s
- Huntington’s
- MS
- depression
- anxiety
- disorder
- olfactory bulbectomy
- anosmia
- smell
- limbic system
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