Human Sense Of Smell Better Than Thought
- From: Rich Travsky <traRvEsky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:42:44 -0700
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=bizarre&id=4861784
Scientists say that, with training, humans could perform some of the scenting
tasks now done strictly by animals.
Imagine yourself blindfolded and wearing earplugs: Could you follow a chocolate
scent with only your nose to guide you?
Surprisingly, most of us can, according to a new study published in Nature
Neuroscience this week.
Researchers put blindfolds, earplugs and gloves on human volunteers, and asked
them to find a chocolate scent trail on the ground and track it to the end like
a dog would.
Researchers found that volunteers could use some of the same smell techniques
animals use to follow scent trails.
....
"It depends a lot on specifically what you want to compare," said Porter. While
dogs can detect many odors at much lower concentrations than humans, "there are
examples where humans are actually better. It is not necessarily that the human
sense of smell is worse than that of other animals, it is just different."
Humans can detect very small concentrations of certain chemicals, experts said.
One example is androstenedione, a compound present in human sweat.
"If you put a drop of it in an Olympic-size swimming pool, a human being is able
to tell the difference between the pool with the drop and the pool without it,"
said Dr. Noam Sobel, associate professor at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
and the department of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.
"This is an astounding ability."
Differences in the ability to detect odors may exist between men and women, experts
said.
"Traditionally, women spend more time in the kitchen, and studies have shown that
they are generally better smellers than men," said Gottfried. "Women are not
necessarily born with a better olfactory sense, it's that they pay more attention to
smells because of cooking and putting on perfume."
....
Not only could most of us follow a scent trail using two nostrils, our sniffing
ability improves with practice.
"With a little training, the volunteers in the study got quite a bit better," said
Shepherd. "This raises the question that if humans had training, maybe they'd do a
lot better."
....
.
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