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Our Human Sense Of Smell (General; Miscellaneous)

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Rrose_Selavy

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Sense of smell 'underestimated'
The sensitivity of the human sense of smell has been significantly underestimated, a study suggests.
US research had confounded the established belief that people have a poorer sense of smell than animals.

The work, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, asked people to follow scents on the ground, as a dog would do, and found they were as good.

A UK expert said the findings were "intriguing" and would aid better understanding of the sense.


It is not the second class system that has been the traditional assumption
Dr Peter Brennan, University of Bristol

The researchers from University of California Berkley laid scent trails, including one of chocolate essential oil, in a grassy field, and asked 32 people to find the 10 metre trail and track it to the end.

Those who took part were blindfolded and wore thick gloves and earplugs to force them to rely exclusively on smell.

Two thirds were able to follow the scent.

And while they remained slower than the animals at tracking scents, their performance improved over time.

In other tests, it was found that humans required both nostrils to be working to be able to track scents.

'Highly developed'

Writing in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers led by Dr Noam Sobel showed the human sense of smell was more powerful than previously believed and that, with training, humans might be capable of tasks which had been thought to be the exclusive province of non-human animals.

Dr Peter Brennan, a physiologist at the University of Bristol, said: "It's certainly an intriguing piece of research.

"It shows that although the sense of smell is less important for humans than it is for many other animals, it is nonetheless a highly developed and sophisticated sensory system.

"It is not the second class system that has been the traditional assumption."

He added: "There has been previous evidence that scent can elicit orientation and movement towards maternal odours by new-born babies, but this is the first time that adult humans have been shown to follow a scent trail."

Dr Brennan said the findings could enable specific areas of research into the human sense of smell.

"For example, it would be interesting to study the extent to which blind people make use of their sense of smell for finding their way around their environment."
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/h ... 183379.stm

Published: 2006/12/18 00:04:38 GMT
© BBC MMVI
 
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There's a really interesting story in Dr Oliver Sacks book 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat', about a guy who dreams he was a dog. The next day he wakes up to find that his sense of smell is massively augmented, to the point where he can close his eyes and walk around his city using just his nose. It lasts for a while then one day it's gone just as quickly as it started. Very weird, but it must have been great to experience, even for just a little while.
 
I hope he had the decency to go back the next day, scooping up his mess and wiping down the lamp-posts.
 
I had a personal experience which proved to me that humans can, sometimes at least, have an incredibly keen sense of smell. In my youth I had just begun a new love affair, and we had a powerful physical passion for one another. Soon after this relationship began, a friend and I went to see a movie that was very popular at the time. The theater was completely full of people. We found seats in the far back left of the place. After just a few minutes, I smelled, yes smelled, my new lover. I could even pinpoint where she was in the theater. I knew she was in the far right front of the theater, across a large room full of hundreds of people.

A couple of days later I saw her, and asked if she had been in the theater that night. She said that she had been, and when I asked what part of the theater she had been sitting in she said she'd been sitting in the front, on the right side. When I told her that I had smelled her there, she was amazed. She said that she had smelled me too, but had assumed it was just her imagination.
 
Human scent tracking (related to the opening post) 2.1MB QuickTime movie here. (It's a BIG download - broadband only I guess).
 
Men prefer smell of bacon to babies
Men prefer the smell of petrol and frying bacon to that of a newborn baby, a study has found.
Published: 7:00AM GMT 07 Dec 2009

The whiff of a newborn was only ranked at number 18 in the poll while bacon was seventh and petrol was 12th.

Top of the list was freshly-baked bread followed by clean sheets and freshly mown grass.

Fish and chips, roast dinner and fresh coffee also made the list as did fresh air after rainfall.

Women picked bread, grass and clean sheets followed by fresh flowers and vanilla as their favourites with vomit, body odour and public toilets the worst smells.

Around the house rubbish bins, wet dogs, cigarettes and smelly feet came top.

It also emerged that nine out of ten women believe a nice scent has the ability to change their mood.

The study was carried out by www.OnePoll.com, which surveyed 4,000 Brits.

Stephen Weller, Director of Communications at the International Fragrance Association, said: ''Scent has always played an important part in our everyday life - wherever we go, we are surrounded by different smells, some good and some bad.

Dr. Pamela Dalton, who has a PhD in experimental psychology and trained as a cognitive and sensory psychologist, also commented on the results: ''We may all react differently to any particular scent.

''Smell has the power to revive the past and transport us to a happy time or place or remind us of a special person, evoking feelings of nostalgia and comfort.

''The link between scent and memory is very strong, and how we react to different smells is therefore very unique and dependent on who we are as individuals and our past experiences.''

Other things to make the men's top 20 include lavender, apple and blackberry crumble in the oven and a freshly lit match.

Women's top 20 also featured vanilla in fifth place, freshly ground coffee in sixth and rainfall in seventh.

Their top ten was completed by chocolate, babies and lavender.

The study also found that 92 per cent of women said smells make them happy.

Memories of happy childhoods were named as the main reason Brits were fond of pleasant smells, followed by 'feeling at home' and delicious food.

While women claim certain smells put a smile on their face because they're homely, or reminds them of someone they love, blokes prefer exciting and invigorating aromas.

And eight out of ten men said smells made them happy.

With nearly half (48 per cent) of blokes admitting to using scent in the home, with it helping a quarter of them relax, wind down or create the right mood.

More than nine in 10 men (94 per cent) even went as far as to say their home smelling nice was important.

The survey found catching a whiff of a partner's aftershave on a passer-by raises a smile for eight in 10 Brits.

But nearly two thirds wouldn't dare tell a friend or work colleague they smelt bad.

Yet 54 per cent per cent of blokes WOULD, compared to just three in 10 women.

And Christmas tree pine needles, bonfires and cinnamon emerged as the smells Brits associate with winter.

etc..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... abies.html

Petrol? :confused:
 
Awestruck_ said:
When I told her that I had smelled her there, she was amazed. She said that she had smelled me too, but had assumed it was just her imagination.
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"Stinky Miller, your mother wants you home!"

One of those quotes that need a footnote - not to mention a footbath - today (or in 2007).

Name the film for a gold star. :)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
Awestruck_ said:
When I told her that I had smelled her there, she was amazed. She said that she had smelled me too, but had assumed it was just her imagination.
Click to expand...

"Stinky Miller, your mother wants you home!"

One of those quotes that need a footnote - not to mention a footbath - today (or in 2007).

Name the film for a gold star. :)
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That classic item of craziness, Hellzapoppin'?
 
I won't admit to liking it, but I can see how it might be preferable to babies. Especially as someone completely without maternal instinct such as our Liz.

It's an odd, familiar smell. As I said, I don't like it, but I don't find it disgusting, unless in excess. But then most things become disgusting in excess.
 
Lyall Watson's book, mentioned by drbates above, has some interesting stuff to say on the smell of babies, and also, IIRC, on the influence of smell on physical attraction - possibly even 'love'.

As to men preferring the smell of bacon over babies: well, I quite like both, but bacon tastes better in a sandwich.
 
I think Anita Funder mentions in her book Stasiland the collecting of geruchsproben - smell samples - by the Stasi. IIRC, they didn't actually have the technology to utilise the samples at the time but thought that they might one day. When East Germany collapsed and Stasi buildings were raided, amongst the millions of files they also found hundreds of pickle jars containing rags theoretically impregnated by subversive body odours.
 
During my 4 pregnancies I could smell what I presume to be male hormones. I could tell if a man or boy was peeing in the bathroom of any house I was in by the smell, from other end of the building and downstairs.

Could also smell that other bodily secretion peculiar to males. :oops:

Men's socks smelt very strong and objectionable to me at those times, even those on men who don't normally have sweaty feet.

After each birth this super-sense subsided, much to my relief. :lol:

I've met women who swear they can tell if a man has recently had sex by their smell. That little talent'd come in useful if you suspected your bloke of playing away. ;)
 
Anome_ said:
I won't admit to liking it, but I can see how it might be preferable to babies. Especially as someone completely without maternal instinct such as our Liz.

It's an odd, familiar smell. As I said, I don't like it, but I don't find it disgusting, unless in excess. But then most things become disgusting in excess.
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I genuinely do like the smell of petrol, it smells of men and engines and motorbikes and going fast and freedom .... babies smell like puke and sickly milk and shit andwomen looking terrible but weirdly happy and a subtle smell of 20 years of responsibility and college fees. :p

I recently read 'Love in the Time of Cholera' and a cheating husband is caught out by the smell of his clothes in that.
 
I suppose my aversion to petrol and the smell thereof dates back to the 60s, when I read "Silent Spring", and became what we now call a 'Green'.

(Ironic that a few years later I was working in the oil industry. But for various reasons that only lasted a year, and my antipathy to the Internal Combustion Engine has continued ever since. What a horrible, cranky mechanism it is - Heath Robinson would have been proud of it!)
 
It's an amazing piece of engineering, but I really think we should move on to something else.
 
*nods*

Someday this war's gonna end...
 
I dont understand why smell is overlooked either.

People would probably assume sight to be the worst to lose but Im not so sure i.e. i cant imagine its not fun either but i do think the other senses are just assumed to be not as important i.e. because sight bascically is what governs our material world / ego.

You cant smell , touch to know what others have unless , more often than not, you can see it - and sight given its link to beauty, sex , always has prominence in that regard.

Most noticably the loss of smell, at least with me, causes terrible depression / denting of spirit i.e. esp when it affects your taste too.

I cant remember almost anything any more regarding long term memories i.e. i dont smell smells that remind me or even get the usual prompts I used to from being in certain places, and of course on that token too do not get aroused really ( which given Im disabled any way ) is prob a plus.

SO i would say smell is vastly underestimated, both as factor in human develpoment and also as health hazard.

There are lots of treatments for pain per se , not saying they work , but when it comes to smell - nothing.

The few times I could smell briefy ( a common quirk with people suffering ansomia - such as myself ) I can tell you my sense smell was completely different i.e. flood of emotions , memories and in some ways ( bui not as grand ) this sense I was almost floating around / outside myself .

It was almost as though , with practice , I could seperate rom myself and subconciously get lost / follow each smell like some treasure map or mouse following cheese.
 
escargot1 said:
*nods*

Someday this war's gonna end...
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'Smells like....'

'Petunias?'

'...Victory! And you're on a charge soldier.'

That was the original script, but apparently Duvall is allergic to ornamental plants. Not a lot of people know that.

Slightly weird coincidence: having mentioned geruchsproben only yesterday, tonight I hired the DVD of The Lives of Others, which I've been meaning to watch for ages - and what does the protagonist do in the first few minutes but remove the fabric from an interrogated man's chair and put it in a pickle jar?
 
Spookdaddy said:
Slightly weird coincidence: having mentioned geruchsproben only yesterday, tonight I hired the DVD of The Lives of Others, which I've been meaning to watch for ages - and what does the protagonist do in the first few minutes but remove the fabric from an interrogated man's chair and put it in a pickle jar?
Click to expand...
Another coincidence: I just finished a book today in which a man detected an unusual smell in a room he was visiting - he put it down to some unusual white roses in the room.

But later he learned it was the perfume of an ex-girlfriend, who had been hiding behind the sofa in the room at the time!
 
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