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Currently there are few treatment options [for anosmia] available. A technique called olfactory training can help in some cases, and a number of approaches to repairing damaged olfactory tissues are being explored. However, a small but growing group of scientists is pursuing another avenue: olfactory implants that restore smell by bypassing the peripheral olfactory system and electrically stimulating the brain.
— Read more in Restoring smell with an electronic nose at Nature.
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[University of Sydney ecologist Catherine] Price and her team ground-tested her theory, literally, by putting a chicken scent in Vaseline and spreading it across thousand-hectare sites where endangered shorebirds nested. Because the scent showed up before the birds, and because it was everywhere and so not a useful clue toward finding dinner, ferrets and stoats left the shorebird nests alone. Nest predation decreased more than 50 percent, an effect that lasted a month.
— Read more in What the nose doesn't know helps wildlife: Using olfactory cues to protect vulnerable species at ScienceDaily.
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Nocturnal tobacco hawkmoths (Manduca sexta) use their keen sense of smell to find nectar rich flowers or plants on which to lay their eggs. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology are looking to answer the question of how the moths distinguish between different smells.
With so many smells in the world, how can moths pick out those that are essential for their lives from those unnecessary whiffs?
— Read more in Tobacco hawkmoths are incredibly sensitive to important smells at Earth.com.
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"The representation of unpleasantness in the brain emerged earlier than pleasantness and perceived quality," said Project Associate Professor Masako Okamoto, also from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences. When unpleasant odors (such as rotten and rancid smells) were administered, participants' brains could differentiate them from neutral or pleasant odors as early as 300 milliseconds after onset. However, representation of pleasant odors (such as floral and fruity smells) in the brain didn't occur until 500 milliseconds onwards, around the same time as when the quality of the odor was also represented.
— Researchers at the University of Tokyo used EEG to look at when and where odors are processed in the brain. Read more in Seeing how odor is processed in the brain at ScienceDaily.
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Now scientists have identified a highly potent odour molecule that appears to be a trigger for the sense of disgust experienced by many of those with parosmia. The molecule, called 2-furanmethanethiol, found in coffee, was described by those with a normal sense of smell as being coffee- or popcorn-like, but those with parosmia typically described its scent as disgusting, repulsive or dirty.
— Read more in Scientists identify ‘trigger molecule’ for Covid-related changes to smell at The Guardian.