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Researchers from Kyoto University and the University of Tsukuba in Japan asked 28 women to wear a specific rose scent oil on their clothing for a month, with another 22 volunteers enlisted as controls who put on plain water instead.
Magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) scans showed boosts in the gray matter volume of the rose scent participants.
— Read more in Smelling This One Specific Scent Can Boost The Brain's Gray Matter at Science Alert.
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A new study introduces a safe, painless way to improve the sense of smell using radio waves. Unlike traditional treatments that rely on strong scents or medications, this noninvasive method stimulates olfactory nerves directly through a small antenna placed near the forehead.
Testing showed that a single five-minute session improved participants’ ability to detect faint odors for over a week. Researchers believe this approach could help patients with smell disorders and professionals who depend on fine scent discrimination.
— Read more in Radio Waves Can Strengthen Sense of Smell at Neuroscience News.
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How we smell is not just a matter of taste – it’s also influenced by our genes. An international team of researchers led by scientists from Leipzig University has conducted the largest genetic study to date on the human sense of smell. Researchers at the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (IMISE) identified seven new genetic regions associated with our ability to perceive odours. In the long term, the findings could help improve understanding of olfactory disorders and enable earlier detection of diseases.
— Read more in Seven New Genetic Regions Associated With Our Ability to Perceive Odors at Technology Networks.
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But what we found when we tested them on very faint substances is that they perform just as well as the control group, but they reacted very strongly to the smells when they were there.
So it was not about being able to smell smells that they couldn't smell before, but they reacted completely different. So it was more on a reactivity level, and that is thought to be protective of the child.
— Jonas Olofsson, professor of psychology at Stockholm University and director of the Sensory Cognitive Interaction Lab, on his research on pregnant women, from the transcript of the radio broadcast Week of Wonder: 'Vivaldi smells like breakfast sausage' at WBUR.
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Though the main goal was to collect data, [Antonie] Bierling and her team did some analysis and drew a core conclusion: “The most crucial finding of this data set is really to appreciate that there are differences in olfactory perception,” she said. For example, around 250 participants described benzyl acetate as smelling like nail polish remover; around 170 others said it smelled like a banana or other fruits.
“Both are actually correct,” she said. “This is actually, in my opinion, not just noise.” Benzyl acetate is present in both nail polish remover and bananas, and “humans get to know a molecule in a certain context."
— Read more in How Smell Guides Our Inner World at Quanta Magazine.