A wide network of interconnected areas was previously found in neuroimaging studies involving normal as
well as pathological subjects; however literature seems to suffer from a lack of investigation in glucose
metabolism behaviour under olfactory condition. Thus, the present work describe for the first time a pure
olfactory related brain response of metabolism by using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission
Tomography/Computer Tomography in eleven resting subjects undergoing a neutral and a pure olfactory
condition. By contrasting these experimental phases, it was possible to depict a re-organization pattern of
default mode network structures in a relatively ecological environment. Moreover, by correlating such
pattern with a battery of validated olfactory and neuropsychological tests, our work allowed in showing
peculiar correlation data that could cluster the subjects sample in a certain range of normality. We believe
the present study could integrate the current knowledge in olfactory research and could be a start-up for
future contributions.
