An article of Maëllie Midroit* and Laura Chalençon* under the direction of Nathalie Mandairon, NEUROPOP CRNL, in Current Biology.
Why are we so attracted to some odorants? A study published in the journal Current Biology shows that pleasant odorants can act as rewards on our brains. This specific property of odorants seems to be due to a special connection between two brain regions, the olfactory bulb, which deals with odor pleasantness, and the olfactory tubercle, a key structure of the reward system. The activation of this network allows dopamine release, as do natural beneficial stimuli such as food or artificial stimuli such as drugs. These results obtained in mice have been confirmed in humans, showing that this process is conserved between species.
© Nathalie Mandairon & Marc Thevenet