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Tout le monde la connaît, la piscine municipale : elle est présente dans les imaginaires et les souvenirs d’enfance ; elle s’impose dans la vie de quartier ; elle constitue un support à l’actuel regain de la pratique de la natation. Pourtant, il s’agit d’un lieu banal, parfois méprisé car ­associé à la culture populaire et aux vacances « sur place ». Elle mène donc une vie discrète, hors des rayons des ­bibliothèques. Mais la piscine mérite son livre ! C’est ce constat qui a rassemblé une sociologue et un photographe, qui se sont plongés dans un microcosme au sein duquel le vivre-ensemble s’exerce au quotidien et où se noue, à bas bruit, du lien social. Leur immersion révèle un espace de mixité captivant où les générations se mélangent et où les signes de classement social tombent en même temps que les ­habits laissés au vestiaire. À travers un récit mêlant paroles des usagers, photographies et bulles sonores se dévoile le ­paysage sensible de la piscine : nous suivons les routines et les attachements, au plus près des mouvements de brasse, des sauts et plongeons, des amours adolescentes, des parasols et paréos, des frites et de la crème solaire.

L’image de la vieillesse dans les sociétés occidentales est traditionnellement présentée comme étant associée à la dégradation, à la maladie, au handicap et à la mort. Le dernier âge de la vie serait ainsi conçu comme un déclin général, touchant indifféremment le corps et l’esprit. Une étude portant sur les représentations sociales de la vieillesse auprès de jeunes adultes invalide cette hypothèse. L’analyse des interviews laisse apparaître une conception de la vieillesse qui dissocie le corps et l’esprit, en leur attribuant des logiques propres. Alors que le corps, par sa détermination biologique, est perçu comme inéluctablement voué à la dégénérescence, le devenir de l’esprit est négociable., The image of old age in western societies is traditionally presented as being associated with decay, illness, handicap and death ; the last stage of life being conceived as a general decline of body and mind. A study on social representations of old age invalidates this hypothesis. The interviewees separate body and mind in their conception of old age, assigning different logics to each of them. The body, because of it’s biological determining, is inescapably doomed to decay. The evolution of the mind, on the contrary, is negotiable.

This paper investigates the relationships consumers cultivate with mass-market commodities while caring for their authenticity. Drawing on a six-year ethnography of classic Mustang owners communities in France, Switzerland and Belgium, the authors show that, far from being a symbolic value only, or a resource into which people can “invest” in a mechanism of social distinction, authenticity can also appear as a burden that weighs constantly on the relationship between people and things. Indeed, throughout their uses and maintenance, the material integrity of classic Mustangs is of great concern for their owners, who apprehend every breakdown or maintenance intervention as threats that could jeopardize their car's authenticity. For the sake of security, comfort or health, because new regulations come up, or because some original parts are not available anymore, classic Mustangs owners compose with heterogeneous elements, constantly reshaping both their cars and their concerns for authenticity. The authors draw on Hennion's notion of “attachement” to describe the intimate relationship that grows through these arrangements. The notion particularly helps to grasp the ambivalence of the bonds between people and things: while they get more and more attached to their classic Mustang, owners are getting more and more worried. Moreover, throughout this growing relationship and the recurrent material interventions it draws on, the car does not remain passive. It progressively reveals itself, sometimes surprising its owner. Therefore, not only is authenticity “in the making” in this process, the contours of the thing itself evolve, as well as the knowledge of its owner.

The human olfactory system is characterized by poor temporal and spatial resolution. When determining changes in the environment, humans rather rely on visual than on olfactory information. Against this background, we developed a test in order to investigate the human capacity to detect changes in the olfactory environment and to determine potential modulators of olfactory change detection. Participants consecutively received four odors (2 odor qualities in 2 concentrations each) which were presented via a computer-controlled olfactometer. The participants' task was to react as soon as they perceived a change of the odor. For control purpose, the same paradigm was also presented with visual instead of olfactory stimuli. A total of 83 healthy participants (aged 18-34 years, 50 women) were included; all of them were screened for attention, olfactory function, chemical sensitivity and the subjective importance of the sense of smell. While visual changes were detected above chance by all participants, olfactory changes were reliably detected by only 24% of the participants. Those were characterized by high subjective importance of olfaction and low chemical sensitivity. Across all participants, changes of olfactory quality were detected more frequently than changes of olfactory concentration. These results suggest that olfaction is imprecise in guiding environmental change detection and may help to explain why humans typically rate the importance of vision higher than the importance of olfaction.

Entre chercheuses et chercheurs, il arrive fréquemment que l’on dise d’un « terrain » que son abord et sa fréquentation n’ont pas été sans difficultés et sont alors évoqués différents « ratés ». Dans d’autres cas, tout aussi fréquents en raison du pluralisme théorique qui caractérise l’espace des sciences sociales, on dit ou entend que tel ou tel « terrain » a tout simplement été « raté » . De la sorte, bien souvent parce qu’il s’exprime depuis le lieu d’une autre posture épistémologique, tel...

Quelle experience font les detenus vieillissants de la vie en penitencier ? Cette question est au cœur de l'etude exploratoire «Vieillir en prison – une etude de sociologie visuelle » menee dans deux penitenciers suisses romands (population: hommes). Dans le cadre d'une demarche participative, des detenus âges de 50 ans et plus ont ete invites a documenter leur quotidien par la tenue d'un « journal photographique » durant quelques jours, accompagne d'un carnet dans lequel sont consignes des commentaires relatifs aux photos.

Olfactory loss and traumatic brain injury (TBI) both lead to anatomical brain alterations in humans. Little research has been done on the structural brain changes for TBI patients with olfactory loss. Using voxel-based morphometry, the gray matter (GM) density was examined for 22 TBI patients with hyposmia, 24 TBI patients with anosmia, and 22 age-matched controls. Olfactory bulb (OB) volumes were measured by manual segmentation of acquired T2-weighted coronal slices using a standardized protocol. Brain lesions in the olfactory-relevant areas also were examined for TBI patients. Results showed that patients with anosmia have more frequent lesions in the OB, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the temporal lobe pole, compared with patients with hyposmia. GM density in the primary olfactory area was decreased in both groups of patients. In addition, compared with controls, patients with anosmia showed GM density reduction in several secondary olfactory eloquent regions, including the gyrus rectus, medial OFC, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and cerebellum. However, patients with hyposmia showed a lesser degree of GM reduction, compared with healthy controls. Smaller OB volumes were found for patients with olfactory loss, compared with controls. TBI patients with anosmia had the smallest OB volumes, which were caused by the lesions for OB. In addition, post-TBI duration was negatively correlated with GM density in the secondary olfactory areas in patients with hyposmia, but was positively correlated with GM density in the frontal and temporal gyrus in patients with anosmia. The GM density and OB volume reduction among TBI patients with olfactory loss was largely dependent on the location and severity of brain lesions in olfactory-relevant regions. Longer post-TBI duration had an impact on brain GM density changes, which indicate a decreased olfactory function in patients with hyposmia and possible compensatory mechanisms in patients with anosmia.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by atypical sensory functioning in the visual, tactile, and auditory systems. Although less explored, olfactory changes have been reported in ASD patients. To explore these changes on a neural level, 18 adults with ASD and 18 healthy neurotypical controls were examined in a 2-phase study. Participants were first tested for odor threshold and odor identification. Then, (i) structural magnetic resonance (MR) images of the olfactory bulb were acquired, and (ii) a functional MR imaging olfaction study was conducted. ASD patients exhibited decreased function for odor thresholds and odor identification; this was accompanied by a relatively decreased activation in the piriform cortex. In conclusion, these findings suggest, that the known alterations in olfaction in ASD are rooted in the primary olfactory cortex.

The literature frequently argues that the feeling of insecurity might be greater among the elderly than in other population groups. Based on results of a qualitative study which consisted of 51 interviews with people aged between 70 and 92 years old, this paper proposes to approach the feeling of insecurity from the actors’ perspective. This allows us to take into account the perception of the elderly in order to dispose of the age-related vision that tends to erase the effects of fragility due to aging.

Odors are typically bimodal in nature, interacting with the olfactory and trigeminal systems. The trigeminal component may be noticed (e.g. menthol) or perceptually ignored, leading to different neural substrates being recruited during odor encoding. Therefore, the current study was designed to explore the perceptual and central-nervous activations in response to pleasant bimodal odors using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this study, healthy subjects were exposed to odorants alone (unimodal) or with a "cooling" trigeminal component (bimodal) at sub- and suprathreshold concentrations with a portable olfactometer in a 3T fMRI scanner. Within the scanner, subjects reported all odorants as pleasant and intensity increasing with trigeminal concentration. Many of the regions of interest [orbital frontal cortex (OFC), insula, thalamus, cerebellum, postcentral gyrus and cingulate cortex] were activated during bimodal odor conditions when contrasted with unimodal, and interestingly, most of these activations were seen prior to trigeminal perception (e.g. at a sub-threshold level). This includes large bilateral activations within the OFC, insula, cerebellum and parts of the cingulate cortex. Additionally, activation of the thalamus was seen early in the stages of bimodal odor encoding suggesting its role of mediating attention toward the presence of two stimuli. Lastly, intensity encoding during bimodal processing shows overlap of previously demonstrated simple trigeminal encoding areas (medial cingulate cortex) and the more complex olfactory encoding areas (bilateral insula, superior temporal gyrus, OFC, and cerebellum), but not the amygdala.

Brain processing of odorants in different stages during adolescence is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate differences in brain processing of pleasant and unpleasant odors between adolescent girls at different ages. Eleven girls aged 9–10 years and 20 girls aged 15–16 years participated in an fMRI study (1.5 T, repetition time 2.5 s) where two odorants (peach and n-butanol) were delivered passively to the participants’ nostrils. Psychophysical measurements for odor intensity, pleasantness, and familiarity were recorded. Compared to older ones, younger girls were less familiar with peach odor. Stronger brain activation of piriform cortex, amygdala, bilateral insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsal striatum (caudate and putamen) was observed in younger vs. older girls, whereas in older girls there was no superior activation in olfactory regions as compared to younger participants. The findings demonstrating differences of brain activation patterns between girls of two age groups may reflect olfactory perception development during adolescence.

Objective Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique widely used in olfactory research. During a typical fMRI olfactory block-design, one functional "run" refers to a combination of multiple blocks with continuous brain image acquisition. The current study investigated the length of functional runs on odor-induced brain response signals (blood oxygen level dependent [BLOD]) within the primary and key secondary olfactory areas. Methods Twenty-five female adults (age range 19 to 30 years, mean age 25 years) underwent a block-design fMRI measurement with odor stimulation. Twelve participants received the odor stimuli within a short run paradigm (six blocks in each 4-minute run, eight runs in total), and 13 participants received the odor stimulation with a long-run paradigm (12 blocks in each 8-minute run, four runs in total). For each paradigm, two odors (peach and rose) were alternatingly presented between runs. Participants rated odor intensity and pleasantness at the end of each run. Ratings and fMRI data were analyzed for different subsections and compared between groups. Results There was a higher level of brain activation in the insula and orbitofrontal cortex during the short-run paradigm as compared to the long-run paradigm. However, there was no difference for odor intensity or pleasantness ratings. Conclusion The current study suggested the employment of short runs with multiple repetitions for odor stimulation during fMRI research. Level of evidence 3 Laryngoscope, 130:1110-1115, 2020.

Le vieillissement en ville s’impose peu à peu comme l’un des défis majeurs des sociétés occidentales. Toutefois, les recherches en sciences sociales sur ce sujet sont encore rares et on ne sait que peu de choses sur le vieillir en ville. Pourtant, la rencontre des deux champs de recherche que sont la sociologie urbaine et la sociologie du vieillissement ouvre des perspectives séduisantes. Il s’agit notamment de saisir les enjeux de la conjugaison de l’épreuve du grand âge et de l’épreuve de la ville. En partant du concept de l’habiter, cet article s’interroge sur les modalités du vieillir en ville en décrivant comment les personnes âgées renouvellent, renégocient et réinventent leurs attachements à leur environnement de vie. Pour ce faire, il s’appuie sur une enquête qualitative menée dans deux zones de l’agglomération genevoise auprès de vingt individus âgés de 64 à 91 ans. L’article commence par décrire le vieillir en ville à travers trois mises à l’épreuve : la réadaptation des pratiques quotidiennes de l’espace urbain, le maintien des relations sociales et la renégociation des ancrages territoriaux. Puis il cherche à saisir les dynamiques transversales des réponses apportées à ces mises à l’épreuve par les personnes âgées. Ce travail d’analyse permet de revisiter le concept de déprise en mettant en avant les arts d’habiter constitués par la somme des attachements qui lient les personnes vieillissantes à leur environnement de vie. Ageing in urban environments is a growing challenge for Western societies. Unfortunately, the issue remains under-addressed in the field of social sciences and little is known about it. However, an approach combining urban sociology and the sociology of ageing opens up interesting possibilities. This includes gaining an understanding of how the épreuve of advanced age and the épreuve of city life overlap. Using the concept of dwelling, this article examines the process of urban ageing and describes how elderly people renew, renegotiate and reinvent their connections with their living environment. The article is based on a qualitative survey conducted among twenty individuals aged between 64 and 91 years of age who live in two areas of Geneva. Firstly, it describes urban ageing through three épreuves: readjusting everyday uses of urban space, maintaining social relationships and renegotiating territorial anchors. It then examines the overarching approaches of the elderly people’s responses to these épreuves. This analysis provides a means of revisiting the concept of “disengagement” (déprise in French) and emphasises the arts of dwelling, which comprise all the connections which the elderly have with their living environment.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a major public health problem may lead to olfactory dysfunction. However, little is known about brain responses to odors in TBI olfactory loss patients. Nineteen healthy controls and forty TBI olfactory dysfunctional patients (19 with hyposmia and 21 with anosmia) underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan when two odors (peach and coffee) were presented intranasally using a computerized olfactometer. Olfactory performance was measured using the “Sniffin’ Sticks” test. TBI patients with hyposmia or anosmia showed decreased odor-induced brain activations in the primary olfactory area and insular cortex as compared to healthy controls (FWE-corrected peak p

There is a large inter-individual variation for umami taste perception. However the neural mechanism for this variability is not well understood. This study investigated brain responses to umami and salty taste among individuals with different umami identification abilities and the effect of repeated oral umami exposure on umami identification and neural processing of taste perceptions. Fifteen participants with high umami identification ability ("High Tasters, HT) and fifteen with low umami identification ability ("Low Tasters", LT) underwent three weeks of controlled exposure to umami taste (umami training). Prior to and after the training, participants underwent fMRI scans during which the umami taste solution and a control taste (salty) solution were delivered to their mouth using a gustometer. Taste intensity and pleasantness were rated after each scan. Umami taste identification was assessed before and after the umami training using "Taste Strips" test. Neuroimaging results showed different central processing of umami and salty taste based on umami identification ability, in which the umami LT had stronger activation in the thalamus and hippocampus while the umami HT showed stronger activation in the primary gustatory cortex. In addition, umami identification was significantly improved after umami training for LT. However, it was not reflected in changes in neural activation. The current study shows that attention and association/memory related brain structures play a significant role in the perception of umami taste; and with reference to the results of repeated umami exposure, the presence of very subtle changes regarding the neural processing.

L’article interroge l’experience du vieillissement dans une communaute agricole autogeree provencale. Cette communaute, fondee il y a plus de 40 ans, a la particularite de beneficier d’une histoire longue permettant d’etudier a la fois l’evolution de la communaute dans le temps, et l’avancement en âge d’une partie de ses membres. Une etude exploratoire melant observations et entretiens met au jour que le projet communautaire porte l’empreinte du groupe d’âge dont faisaient partie les pionniers au moment de sa fondation (18-25 ans), le projet ayant ete pense par et pour des jeunes gens issus des mouvements de mai 1968. Au sein de la communaute, l’avancement en âge et les transformations, notamment physiques, qui peuvent l’accompagner ont ete – et sont toujours – un impense. La topographie du lieu, les infrastructures, l’organisation et l’accomplissement des tâches collectives constituent une epreuve pour les individus qui sentent poindre la fragilite, cette epreuve etant vecue de facon solitaire et intime, et non de facon collective.

Selective processing of environmental stimuli improves processing capacity and allows adaptive modulation of behavior. The thalamus provides an effective filter of central sensory information processing. As olfactory projections, however, largely bypass the thalamus, other filter mechanisms must consequently have evolved for the sense of smell. We investigated whether specific anosmia - the inability to perceive a specific odor whereas detection of other substances is unaffected - represents an effective peripheral filter of olfactory information processing. In contrast to previous studies, we showed in a sample of 1600 normosmic subjects, that specific anosmia is by no means a rare phenomenon. Instead, while the affected odor is highly individual, the general probability of occurrence of specific anosmia is close to 1. In addition, 25 subjects performed daily olfactory training sessions with enhanced exposure to their particular "missing" smells for the duration of three months. This resulted in a significant improvement of sensitivity towards the respective specific odors. We propose specific anosmia to occur as a rule, rather than an exception, in the sense of smell. The lack of perception of certain odors may constitute a flexible peripheral filter mechanism, which can be altered by exposure.

Food-associated cues of different sensory categories have often been shown to be a potent elicitor of cerebral activity in brain reward circuits. Smells influence and modify the hedonic qualities of eating experience, and in contrast to smells not associated with food, perception of food-associated odors may activate dopaminergic brain areas. In this study, we aimed to verify previous findings related to the rewarding value of food-associated odors by means of an fMRI design involving carefully preselected odors of edible and non-edible substances. We compared activations generated by three food and three non-food odorants matching in terms of intensity, pleasantness and trigeminal qualities. We observed that for our mixed sample of thirty hungry and satiated participants, food odors generated significantly higher activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (right and left), insula (right), and putamen (right) than non-food odors. Among hungry subjects, regardless of the odor type, we found significant activation in the ventral tegmental area in response to olfactory stimulation. As our stimuli were matched in terms of various perceptual qualities, this result suggests that edibility of an odor source indeed generates specific activation in dopaminergic brain areas.

This fMRI study was designed to investigate the effect of cross-modal conditioning in 28 female volunteers. Subjects underwent initial fMRI block design scanning during which three pleasant olfactory stimuli were presented and had to be rated with respect to intensity and pleasantness. This was followed by an odor identification task spread out over 3 days: the experimental group was rewarded for successful trials (correct odor identification) with emotionally salient photos, whilst the control group only received randomly displayed, emotionally neutral, pictures. In the final scanning session, the odors were again presented, and subjects rated pleasantness and intensity. Both pleasantness ratings and fMRI data showed effects of the rewarding procedure. Activation in nucleus accumbens and the orbitofrontal cortex confirmed the hypothesis that learnt association of odors with visual stimuli of emotionally positive valence not only increases pleasantness of the olfactory stimuli but is also reflected in the activation of brain structures relevant for hedonic and reward processing. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to report successful cross-modal conditioning of olfactory stimuli with visual clues.

Entre chercheuses et chercheurs, il arrive frequemment que l’on dise d’un « terrain » que son abord et sa frequentation n’ont pas ete sans difficultes et sont alors evoques differents « rates ». Dans d’autres cas, tout aussi frequents en raison du pluralisme theorique qui caracterise l’espace des sciences sociales, on dit ou entend que tel ou tel « terrain » a tout simplement ete « rate » . De la sorte, bien souvent parce qu’il s’exprime depuis le lieu d’une autre posture epistemologique, tel...

International audience; How does French-language sociology deal with aging? This is the question posed by this contribution, which explores articles published within the past fifteen years in various French-language scientific journals. Through a systematic review of the scientific literature, we analyze the evolution of topics in the sociology of aging through five well-known French-language journals of sociology. Three of them are generalist journals (Revue française de sociologie, Revue suisse de sociologie, Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques), from France, Switzerland, and Belgium respectively. The remaining two journals, both from France, are specifically devoted to the study of aging (Gérontologie et société, Retraite et société). The results invite further exploration of the influence of the national contexts in which French-speaking European sociologies are structured.

Rats are able to lateralize odors. This ability involves specialized neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex which are able to process the left, right and bilateral presentation of stimuli. However, it is not clear whether this function is preserved in humans. Humans are in general not able to differentiate whether a selective olfactory stimulant has been applied to the left or right nostril; however exceptions have been reported. Following a screening of 152 individuals with an olfactory lateralization test, we identified 19 who could lateralize odors above chance level. 15 of these "lateralizers" underwent olfactory fMRI scanning in a block design and were compared to 15 controls matched for age and sex distribution. As a result, both groups showed comparable activation of olfactory eloquent brain areas. However, subjects with lateralization ability had a significantly enhanced activation of cerebral trigeminal processing areas (somatosensory cortex, intraparietal sulcus). In contrast to controls, lateralizers furthermore exhibited no suppression in the area of the trigeminal principal sensory nucleus. An exploratory study with an olfactory change detection paradigm furthermore showed that lateralizers oriented faster towards changes in the olfactory environment. Taken together, our study suggests that the trigeminal system is activated to a higher degree by the odorous stimuli in the group of "lateralizers". We conclude that humans are not able to lateralize odors based on the olfactory input alone, but vary in the degree to which the trigeminal system is recruited.

Cerebral activations during olfactory mental imagery are fairly well investigated in healthy participants but little attention has been given to olfactory imagery in patients with olfactory loss. To explore whether olfactory loss leads to deficits in olfactory imagery, neural responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and self-report measures were investigated in 16 participants with acquired olfactory loss and 19 control participants. Participants imagined both pleasant and unpleasant odors and their visual representations. Patients reported less vivid olfactory but not visual images than controls. Results from neuroimaging revealed that activation patterns differed between patients and controls. While the control group showed stronger activation in olfactory brain regions for unpleasant compared to pleasant odors, the patient group did not. Also, activation in critical areas for olfactory imagery was correlated with the duration of olfactory dysfunction, indicating that the longer the duration of dysfunction, the more the attentional resources were employed. This indicates that participants with olfactory loss have difficulties to perform olfactory imagery in the conventional way. Regular exposure to olfactory information may be necessary to maintain an olfactory imagery capacity.

Sniffin' Sticks have become a popular procedure to measure overall olfactory functionality with 3 subtest: phenyl ethyl alcohol threshold test (T), discrimination (D), and identification (I). However, several procedural components specified by the original paper have not been tested nor has the impact of deviations been measured. The aim of the present work was to measure olfactory performance under modified testing procedures. First, the reverse order of subtests (IDT) was compared with more standard practices (TDI). Next, the possible impact of background noise and positive concurrent feedback were assessed. A total of 120 individuals participated in the study where the 3 conditional experiments, each involving 40 participants, were completed. Testing procedures that reversed the presentation order of subtests (I->D->T) scored a significantly lower overall TDI score than standard testing order with the threshold subtest being the most influenced. Additionally, nonverbal background noise lowered overall olfactory performance while concurrent feedback modulated threshold performance. These results emphasize the importance of testing parameters where olfactory perception and tasks may be modulated by adaptation and attentional distraction, respectively. This study helped furthermore to demonstrate that the investigated 3 deviations from the standard procedure revealed a significant impact on the performance outcome in olfactory assessment using the Sniffin' Sticks.

Cet article repose sur une étude qualitative menée auprès de personnes âgées vivant à domicile dans une grande ville de Suisse romande et portant sur leur sentiment de sécurité/ insécurité. Cette étude se distancie des approches abordant la question uniquement sous l'angle de la peur du crime. Nos résultats révèlent un important contraste entre la tendance des médias et des institutions à dénoncer l'insécurité à laquelle seraient exposées les personnes âgées et les préoccupations exprimées par ces dernières. En effet, si nos données montrent un mouvement de repli progressif sur le quartier, voire sur le domicile, peu de personnes rencontrées déclarent ne pas se sentir en sécurité. Pour les personnes interviewées, la question de la sécurité est d'abord associée à leur vulnérabilité croissante qui les amène à développer différentes parades pour limiter les entraves liées au vieillissement, notamment en matière de mobilité. Ces parades font partie du processus de déprise qui n'est pas à comprendre comme un renoncement à un monde perçu comme menaçant sur la seule dimension de la criminalité, mais comme une adaptation qui permet à la personne âgée de maintenir des activités porteuses de sens alors même que le processus de fragilisation la rend plus vulnérable. Porter attention aux définitions subjectives de la sécurité et de l'insécurité et les interpréter à la lumière du processus de déprise souligne la nécessité de distinguer différentes facettes du sentiment de sécurité et de prendre en compte le contexte de vie des individus dans la compréhension de ce sentiment.

The cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Sniffin`Sticks test for the Portuguese population is described. Over 270 people participated in four experiments. In Experiment 1, 67 participants rated the familiarity of presented odors and seven descriptors of the original test were adapted to a Portuguese context. In Experiment 2, the Portuguese version of Sniffin`Sticks test was administered to 203 healthy participants. Older age, male gender and active smoking status were confirmed as confounding factors. The third experiment showed the validity of the Portuguese version of Sniffin`Sticks test in discriminating healthy controls from patients with olfactory dysfunction. In Experiment 4, the test-retest reliability for both the composite score (r71 = 0.86) and the identification test (r71 = 0.62) was established (p

Aim of this retrospective study was to obtain information about the frequency of taste disorders, their most frequent causes, and typical symptoms. A total of 491 out of 4,680 patients (presenting for the first time between 1998 and 2011) exhibited taste disorders (10.5 %). All patients underwent a thorough physical otorhinolaryngological examination including detailed assessment of smell and taste functions. The three most frequent causes of disorders were idiopathic (34 %), posttraumatic (24 %), and postoperative (15 %). Patients with idiopathic and postoperative taste disorders complained mainly about hypogeusia and parageusia; in comparison, patients with posttraumatic taste disorders exhibited a relatively higher degree of partial, local, or complete ageusia. Among patients with phantogeusia and parageusia, 38 % reported salty, and 22 % mixed sensations like bitter-salty or sour-sweet. In approximately 1/3 of this group of patients the cause of dysgeusia is unknown. Twenty-one percent of the patients complained of qualitative rather than quantitative taste problems.

Background and aim: Olfactory dysfunction is a common complaint in a large number of people. As the aetiologies of olfactory dysfunction vary greatly so do the treatment approaches. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate treatment with systemic corticosteroids, particularly focusing on its effectiveness on the different olfactory dysfunction aetiologies. Although a prospective randomized control trail is preferred for such an investigation, using the current approach, we were able to test a very large patient population. Material and methods: A total of 425 patients with olfactory dysfunction were treated with systemic corticosteroids for 14 days. Olfactory performance was measured using the `Sniffin` Sticks` battery before and after the treatment. Results: The treatment with systemic corticosteroids significantly increased the performance on the TDI score and on each of the three subtests; threshold, discrimination and identification. In 26.6% of the patients improvement of more than six points of the TDI score was observed. The treatment proved to be more effective in patients with sinunasal olfactory dysfunction, where this percentage increased to 36.7, compared to other aetiologies. In addition, the increase in olfactory function was negatively correlated with the TDI score before the treatment. Conclusion: This study confirms the effectiveness of systemic corticosteroids on olfactory dysfunction in a large patient population. Specifically, the results show that treatment is: (a) more effective in patients with sinunasal than in patients with idiopathic olfactory dysfunction, (b) most effective in patients with sinunasal disease with nasal polyps, and (c), at best, effective in half of the patients. The current study may provide help in counselling patients.

Because central nervous processing of odorous stimuli in different stages of adolescence has rarely been studied, in this preliminary fMRI investigation, 20 subjects were grouped according to age (children 9–12 years old and young adults 17–20 years old) to build two equally sized samples. Patterns of cerebral activation were compared between both groups following passive nasal stimulation with three odorants. Children mainly showed activation of olfactory cortex, namely, piriform cortex and amygdala. In young adults, enhanced activation was revealed in neocortical areas, suggesting a greater involvement of areas engaged in cognitive integration of olfactory stimuli. However, it is emphasized that additional psychological and developmental confounds should be taken into account in future studies to establish more profound results.

Excessive intake of dietary salt (sodium chloride) may increase the risk of chronic diseases. Accordingly, various strategies to reduce salt intake have been conducted. This study aimed to investigate whether a salty‐congruent odor can enhance saltiness on the basis of psychophysical (Experiment 1) and neuroanatomical levels (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, after receiving one of six stimulus conditions: three odor conditions (odorless air, congruent, or incongruent odor) by two concentrations (low or high) of either salty or sweet taste solution, participants were asked to rate taste intensity and pleasantness. In Experiment 2, participants received the same stimuli during the functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. In Experiment 1, compared with an incongruent odor and/or odorless air, a congruent odor enhanced not only taste intensity but also either pleasantness of sweetness or unpleasantness of saltiness. In Experiment 2, a salty‐congruent combination of odor and taste produced significantly higher neuronal activations in brain regions associated with odor–taste integration (e.g., insula, frontal operculum, anterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex) than an incongruent combination and/or odorless air with taste solution. In addition, the congruent odor‐induced saltiness enhancement was more pronounced in the low‐concentrated tastant than in the high‐concentrated one. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the congruent odor‐induced saltiness enhancement on the basis of psychophysical and neuroanatomical results. These findings support an alternative strategy to reduce excessive salt intake by adding salty‐congruent aroma to sodium reduced food. However, there are open questions regarding the salty‐congruent odor‐induced taste unpleasantness. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Developed in the 1990s, the “Sniffin ‘Sticks” test for the assessment of olfactory threshold, odor identification and discrimination has become a widely used tool both in clinical and research settings. Originally pencil-and-paper documented, it may now be applied using a computer program. The “Filemaker” based software “OLAF” guides the examiner through any user-defined arrangement of the test battery, stores all data in a database, and offers results sheets to be printed out for convenience. The royalty-free program may be downloaded from http://www.tu-dresden.de/medkhno/riechen_schmecken/olaf.zip as a runtime solution application. It is currently available in four languages (English, French, German, and Italian) which can be toggled by a single mouse click, and is suitable for Windows as well as Apple platforms. In conclusion, the currently described software is expected to further facilitate and standardize olfactory testing with the “Sniffin’ Sticks” test battery.

La nouvelle grand-parentalite, norme sociale largement diffusee et repandue, ne croise que tres partiellement les experiences grands-parentales ordinaires. L’analyse de relations entre grands-parents et petits-enfants adolescents met en lumiere, d’une part, la complexite du « travail » grand-parental qui se cache derriere l’apparente evidence de « l’etre grand-parent » et, d’autre part, l’inegale repartition des ressources mobilisables dans le cadre de la grand-parentalite contemporaine (ressources materielles, culturelles, familiales, relationnelles, symboliques).

L'article présente une étude qualitative menée à Genève, par le biais d'entretiens avec des adolescents et leurs grands-parents. L'analyse, centrée sur l'évolution temporelle de la relation entre grand-parent et petit-fils ou petite-fille, met en lumière les différents enjeux qui traversent la relation, notamment au moment du passage à l'adolescence. L'article distingue différentes configurations de dyades, opposant principalement celles vécues dans un sentiment subjectif de constance (dans la proximité ou dans la distance) à celles portant l'empreinte du mouvement, de la transformation. Face à l'image, en vogue, d'une grand-parentalité épanouie, maîtrisée et à la portée de tous, les auteurs soulignent la diversité des expériences et interrogent les déterminants sous-jacents à cette diversité, relevant notamment la variété des ressources – matérielles, financières, mais aussi symboliques, identitaires – susceptibles d'être mobilisées dans et pour la relation, ainsi que le caractère potentiellement inégal de leur répartition au sein de l'espace social.

Background: Birhinal testing of odor identification will not allow the detection of unilateral olfactory loss. The aim of the presented study was to evaluate side differences of odor identification in large groups of healthy subjects and in patients with nasal symptoms. Participants and Method: Self-assessment of olfactory function and evaluation of olfactory function by means of a validated test were performed in 479 healthy subjects, in 765 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), and in 53 patients with a tumor. A 12-item odor identification test (“Sniffin' Sticks”) was used to evaluate olfactory function separately for each nostril. Results: Fifteen percent of the healthy subjects demonstrated side differences in the identification of at least 3 out of 12 odors. Healthy elderly subjects showed larger side differences in identification of odor than younger ones; a general difference between odor identification with the right or left nostril was not found. Both CRS patients and patients with a tumor had larger side differences than healthy subjects. Only 20% of the patients with a tumor complained about impaired olfactory sensitivity, but more than 75% of them showed deficits in olfactory tests. Conclusion: Side differences of odor identification of 25% or greater should give reason for further investigation. Future studies are needed to investigate whether side differences in healthy subjects are a predicator of a higher risk for general olfactory loss.

Recent studies support the idea of olfactory dysfunction as a very early sign of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD). Aim of the present study was to clinically follow-up patients with idiopathic hyposmia to find out the percentage of patients developing IPD after 4 years time. At baseline, olfactory tests had been combined with transcranial sonography of the substantia nigra and (123)I-FP-CIT SPECT imaging. At the present neurological examination, 7% of the individuals with idiopathic hyposmia had developed clinical IPD. Altogether, 13% presented with abnormalities of the motor system. Our data suggest that a combination of olfactory testing and other tests may constitute a screening tool for the risk to develop IPD.

Epilepsy surgery is an option for patients with pharmacoresistant focal epilepsies, but it requires a precise focus localization procedure. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) can be used for analysis of interictal activity. The aim of this prospective study was to compare clusters of source localization results with MEG and EEG using a three spherical shells (3SS) and a boundary element method (BEM) volume conductor model. The study was closed when 100 patients met the inclusion criteria. Simultaneous MEG and EEG were recorded during presurgical evaluation. Epileptiform signals were analyzed using an equivalent current dipole model. Centroids of source localizations from MEG, EEG, 3SS, and BEM in their respective combinations were compared. In a 3SS model, MEG source localizations were 5.6 mm inferior to those obtained by EEG, while in a BEM model MEG source localizations were 6.3 mm anterior and 4.8 mm superior. The mean scattering of source localizations between both volume conductor models was 19.5 mm for EEG and 9.6 mm for MEG. For MEG no systematic difference between BEM and 3SS source localizations was found. For EEG, source localizations with BEM were 5.9 mm posterior and 11.7 mm inferior to those determined using 3SS. No differences were found between the 46 temporal and the 54 extratemporal lobe epilepsy patients. The observed systematic differences of source localizations of epileptic spikes due to the applied source signal modality and volume conductor model should be considered in presurgical evaluation when only one source signal and volume conductor model is available. Hum Brain Mapp, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.