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Dr. Dalton and her team found that with repeated exposure, the women’s ability to detect the odors improved 100,000-fold: the women were able to detect the odor at a concentration 1/100,000th of the concentration they needed at the beginning of the study.
But the male subjects, on average, showed no improvement at all in their ability to detect the odor.
— Read more at Why Stinky Socks May Bother Women More Than Men at The New York Times.
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The emotional facial expression of others influences how positive or negative we perceive an odour. The basis of this effect seems to be the activity of a brain area that is relevant for smelling and is activated even before we perceive an odour.
— Read more at How the emotions of others influence our olfactory sense at Science Daily.
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What we eat can influence more than our waistlines. It turns out, our diets also help determine what we smell like.
A recent study found that women preferred the body odor of men who ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. Whereas men who ate a lot of carbohydrates gave off a smell that was less appealing.
— Read more at Men, Listen Up: Women Like The Smell Of Guys Who Eat A Certain Diet at NPR.
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But when you’re a mouse (or, perhaps, a human) and fattening food is all around, a new study finds that those with little or no ability to detect odors may have a key advantage. While mice with an intact sense of smell grow obese on a steady diet of high-fat chow, their littermates who have had their sense of smell expunged can eat the same food yet remain trim.
If you’re thinking this is a cautionary tale about the effect of enhancing gustatory delight on portion control, you’re on the wrong track.
— Read more at Does my sense of smell make me look fat? In mice, the answer seems to be yes at the Los Angeles Times.
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I'm glad to smell my family and friends. I know the smell of the afternoon in my office, warmed by sun, as well as the smell of the advent of spring. Before opening my eyes on awakening this morning, I could smell that the dogs and cat had joined me in bed, but my husband was up. In the next hour, I smelled mown grass and a waft of cloves in the park; the mustiness of a raincoat taken out of a back closet; when the toast was ready; and the beautiful, straw-like smell of the top of my son's head. I relish it all.
— Alexandra Horowitz, author of Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell, from Learn To Sniff Like A Dog And Experience The World In A New Way at NPR.