So, does that mean training the nose can help the mind? Some research suggests that it actually might. In one 2022 study, seniors with depression trained their noses for several months and saw their symptoms diminish, especially those who had previous smelling problems.

A smaller 2021 study of dementia patients found that smell training not only improved depression but also helped them remember words faster.

— Read more in Can You Pass the Spice-Drawer Smell Test? at The New York Times.

The fascination with Joy [Milne] is of course attributable to the fact that she can smell the way she can, but it is heightened by the fact that no one knows why. She is hyperosmic by any reasonable definition, but hyperosmia has been the object of so little serious scientific investigation — the smell taboo in action, no doubt, at least in part — that it lacks even a set of agreed-upon definitional criteria.

— Read more in The Woman Who Could Smell Parkinson’s at The New York Times.

In a fascinating 2020 study, researchers in Reykjavik delved into the olfactory abilities of more than 11,000 Icelanders. They discovered a genetic quirk that alters one’s perception of fishy scents. While this rare mutation affects only about 2 percent of Icelanders, it’s practically unheard of in African countries (0.2 percent) and is scantily present in other parts of Europe (0.8 percent). To those born with the genetic mutation, the fish smells transform into something more akin to a bouquet of roses.

— Read more in Been There, Smelled That: Can You Smell What I Smell In Iceland? at McSweeney’s.