Brain Mapping with High-Resolution fMRI Technology

This chapter describes the use of high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology in brain odor mapping and a suite of informatics tools for building, databasing, and analyzing fMRI odor maps. OdorMapBuilder is a software program that extracts the olfactory signals that occurred in a particular layer of the olfactory bulb (OB), that is, the glomerular layer, from the 3D imaging data and generates 2D flat odor maps. Odor maps describe the odor-induced spatial activity patterns in the entire glomerular layer in the OB. OdorMapDB is a Web-based database system that serves as a centralized repository for the fMRI odor maps. OdorMapComparer is a software program that allows users to visually evaluate and statistically determine the similarity or difference between two fMRI odor maps being compared. Taken together, the fMRI technique and the related informatics tools play an important role in the study of the signal-encoding mechanisms in the olfactory system, which is essential to our understanding of the perception of smell.