Fig 1.
Illustration of the stimulation sites showing the longitudinal section of the septum (A) and lateral wall (B) of the nose: anterior septum (1), lateral vestibulum (2), interior nose tip (3), lower turbinate (4), middle septum (5), middle turbinate (6), and olfactory cleft (7). Nasal swabs were taken in anterior septum (1), middle turbinate (6), and olfactory cleft (7). The Figure was modified with markings (letters, numbers) and colour changes after adaptation of “Nasal Cavity” from Servier Medical Art by Servier, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License”.
Table 1.
Taqman assays for qPCR analyses.
Fig 2.
Thermal threshold in different sites of the nose regarding the temperature at the right site and the duration of stimulation at the left site: The anterior septum tended to have a higher thermal threshold.
Fig 3.
Relative receptor mRNA expression normalized to TBP over the sites.
Fig 4.
Pearson’s correlation represented as a multidimensional heatmap.
Pearson’s correlation plot visualized the correlation values between 26 acquired parameters (psychophysical tests, trigeminal questionnaire, nasal patency, thermal threshold, and m-RNA receptor expression). Scale bar represents the range of the correlation coefficients displayed. Red color (1.00–0.70) indicated a strong positive correlation, blue color (−0.70–−1.00) revealed a strong negative correlation, light color above 0.40 or under −0.40 indicated moderate correlation, grey color with a coefficient of approximately 0 displayed no correlation. Significant p-values are shown with an asterisk*, the classification is as follows: p≤0.05 *, p≤0.01 **, p≤0.001 ***.
Table 2.
Evaluation of the sensation regarding intensity, pain, tickling warmth, cold, and pleasantness at different stimulations.
Table 3.
Pairwise comparison of significant differences in the sensation regarding the stimulation site.