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Chem. Senses 28: 741-749, 2003
© Oxford University Press 2003

Analysis of Mutual Information Content for EEG Responses to Odor Stimulation for Subjects Classified by Occupation

Byung-Chan Min1, Seung-Hyun Jin2, In-Hyeng Kang3, Dong Hyung Lee1, Jin Kyu Kang1, Sang Tae Lee3 and Kazuyoshi Sakamoto4

1 Ergonomics Laboratory, Department of Industrial Management and Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, Korea 2 Department of Physics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea 3 Ergonomics Laboratory, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, Korea 4 Ergonomics Laboratory, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan

Correspondence to be sent to: Byung-Chan Min, Ergonomics Laboratory, Department of Industrial Management and Engineering, Hanbat National University, San16-1, DuckMyoung-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea. e-mail: bcmin{at}hanbat.ac.kr

To investigate the changes of cortico-cortical connectivity during odor stimulation of subjects classified by occupation, the mutual information content of EEGs was examined for general workers, perfume salespersons and professional perfume researchers. Analysis of the averaged-cross mutual information content (A-CMI) from the EEGs revealed that among the professional perfume researchers changes in the A-CMI values during odor stimulation were more apparent in the frontal region of the brain, while for the general workers and perfume salespersons such changes were more conspicuous in the overall posterior temporal, parietal and frontal regions. These results indicate that the brains of professional perfume researchers respond to odors mainly in the frontal region, reflecting the function of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) due to the occupational requirement of these subjects to discriminate or identify odors. During odor stimulation, the perfume salespersons, although relatively more exposed to odors than the general workers, showed similar changes to the general workers. The A-CMI value is in inverse proportion to psychological preferences of the professional perfume researchers and perfume salespersons, though this is not the case with the general workers. This result suggests that functional coupling for people who are occupationally exposed to odors may be related to psychological preference.

Key words: different occupation, frontal, temporal, posterior parietal regions, functional connectivity, mutual information content, odor stimulation, psychological preference


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