Latest Olfaction Stories

As anyone suffering through a head cold knows, food tastes wrong when the nose is clogged, an experience that leads many to conclude that the sense of taste operates normally only when the olfactory system is also in good working order. Evidence that the taste system influences olfactory perception, however, has been vanishingly rare"”until now. In a novel study this week in Nature Neuroscience, Brandeis researchers report just such an influence.Neuroscientist Don Katz and colleagues...

The use of an electronic smelling system capable of discriminating which tomatoes, melons or other products have a more attractive aroma is a particularly valuable aid for agro-food firms. However, existing electronic noses do not "smell" in the same way depending on the laboratory conditions, and these conditions change throughout the day and from one day to another. In order to overcome these fluctuations, researchers from the Agro-Food Quality Improvement Group at the Universitat Jaume I...

Humans have the same receptors for detecting odors related to sex as do other apes and primates. But each species uses them in different ways, stemming from the way the genes for these receptors have evolved over time, according to Duke University researchers.Varying sensitivity to these sex-steroid odors may play a role in mate selection -- and perhaps prevent cross-species couplings, the researchers speculate.The researchers analyzed the sequences and functions of the gene for the odorant...

Study, published in Nature, also identifies pheromone-detecting neurons in the fly's antennaHave you ever found yourself struggling to get your order taken at a crowded bar or lunch counter, only to walk away in disgust as more aggressive customers elbow their way to the front? It turns out that flies do much the same thing, according to biologists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).Reporting in the advance online edition of the journal Nature, the scientists say they have...

Weizmann Institute scientists reveal how some aromas are bound up in our memoriesFrom Proust's Madeleines to the overbearing food critic in the movie Ratatouille who's transported back to his childhood at the aroma of stew, artists have long been aware that some odors can spontaneously evoke strong memories. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now revealed the scientific basis of this connection. Their research appeared in the latest issue of Current Biology.Graduate student...

Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study online on November 5th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain."We found that the first pairing or association between an object and a smell had a distinct signature in the brain," even in adults, said Yaara...

Chemical ecologists in the Walter Leal lab at the University of California, Davis, have identified the dominant odor naturally produced in humans and birds that attracts the blood-feeding Culex mosquitoes, which transmits West Nile virus and other life-threatening diseases.  The groundbreaking research explains why mosquitoes shifted hosts from birds to humans and paves the way for key developments in mosquito and disease control.Entomology professor Walter Leal and postdoctoral researcher...

Treatment with a glucocorticoid medication, either alone or in combination with Ginkgo biloba, appears to significantly improve the sense of smell in individuals with previous olfactory loss due to upper respiratory infections, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Otolaryngology"“Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.Olfactory loss [loss of the sense of smell] is common and can be caused by head trauma, chronic sinonasal inflammation and viral...

Each of the 6.7 billion people on Earth has a signature body odor "” the chemical counterpart to fingerprints "” and scientists are tracking down those odiferous arches, loops, and whorls in the "human odorprint" for purposes ranging from disease diagnosis to crime prevention. That's the topic of an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.C&EN Senior Correspondent Ivan Amato points out that police long have used trained dogs...

Why recognizing sex pheromone components of the silkworm moth at the scale of atoms and molecules impacts on eco-friendly agricultureNew research announced today, Wednesday 30th September, by a team of leading scientists working with the UK's national Synchrotron, Diamond Light Source, could have a significant impact on the development and refinement of new eco-friendly pest control methods for worldwide agriculture.Published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, the study was carried out by...