Source localization of event-related brain activity elicited by food and nonfood odors

• Food aromas can modulate eating behavior.
• We investigated electrophysiological brain responses to food and non-food odors.
• Analyses revealed specific scalp potential maps for the two conditions.
• The map in the “food” condition seemed to be associated with reward processing.

Tastes and odors influence the perception of a meal. Especially food aromas can act as potent signals to modulate our eating behavior with strong dependency on the reward produced by food. In this investigation we aimed to study the electrophysiological response to food- and non-food-related odors in healthy volunteers. Analyses revealed specific scalp potential maps for the two conditions; in particular the source of the map in the “food” condition seemed to be associated with the processing of rewards; the specific map in the “non-food” condition reflects odor characteristics excluding the reward.