Affiliations
Postdoctoral Fellow, Monell Chemical Senses Center
Education
Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany)
Laboratory Of
Dr. Johannes Reisert
Research Summary
In the mammalian nose, the trigeminal system detects irritants, and the olfactory system detects odorants. Traditionally, these systems have been considered separate sensory modalities, but a more complex picture has recently emerged. Psychophysical and electrophysiological studies show evidence of interaction between these two chemosensory systems, suggesting that olfactory perception is the result of olfactory-trigeminal integration, rather than an isolated system.
Although most odorants can also activate the trigeminal system, and olfactory sensory neurons can also detect most irritants, the nature of olfactory-trigeminal interaction is still unclear. My work seeks to determine how trigeminal activation influences the olfactory response by analyzing the peripheral mechanisms underlying chemosensation.
Keywords
neuroscience, electrophysiology, olfaction, chemesthesis, neuromodulation
Representative Publications
Genovese F, Tizzano M. (2018) Microvillous cells in the olfactory epithelium express elements of the solitary chemosensory cell transduction signaling cascade. PLoS One. 13, e0202754.
