Global study of variability in olfactory sensitivity

Anna Oleszkiewicz*, Rafieh Alizadeh, Aytug Altundag, Ben Chen, Alessandra Corrai, Rachele Fanari, Mohammad Farhadi, Neelima Gupta, Rebecca Habel, Robyn Hudson, Jessica L. Hughes, Akshita Joshi, Seyed Kamran Kamrava, Curtis Luckett, Mehmet K. Mahmut, Carla Masala, Eri Mori, Robert Pellegrino, Raffaella Piras, Katarzyna ReslerAlejandro Rivas-Castro, Supreet Saluja, Sanskriti Sharma, Hajime Shimmura, Graciela M. Soler, Michał Mikołaj Stefanczyk, Zhifu Sun, Divesh Thaploo, Yongxiang Wei, Xiaoguang Yan, Thomas Hummel

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    13 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    Variability in human olfactory sensitivity has been attributed to individual-level factors such as genetics, age, sex, medical history of infections and trauma, neurogenerative diseases, and emotional disorders. Scarce evidence exists on the cross-cultural variation in olfactory sensitivity. Hence, we performed 2 studies to estimate the variability in olfactory threshold as a function of location and environment. Study 1 involved 11 laboratories from 4 continents (N = 802). In each location, in a designated laboratory, approximately 80 subjects underwent olfactory sensitivity testing with custom-made tests with eucalyptol and phenylethanol (PEA) odors. Tests were based on the Threshold subtest of the Sniffin' Sticks battery. In Study 2, we compared olfactory sensitivity and suprathreshold perception of PEA and eucalyptol in 2 Chinese (N = 160) and 2 Indian (N = 92) populations-one based in their native country and the other in Germany. Both studies present large-scale evidence that olfactory sensitivity varies as a function of geographical location and suggest that environmental factors play an important role in shaping olfactory sensitivity and suprathreshold olfactory perception. We delineate further steps necessary to identify specific factors underlying uncovered variability and the relationship between olfactory sensitivity and suprathreshold odor perception.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)394-406
    Number of pages13
    JournalBehavioral Neuroscience
    Volume134
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2020

    Keywords

    • olfaction
    • olfactory sensitivity
    • mixed olfactory/trigeminal sensitivity
    • smell

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