Olfactory perception, human study

A first study was designed to assess the effectiveness of three European clinical olfactory tests for characterizing the olfactory abilities of healthy subjects qualified to take part in sensory analysis studies. On the basis of this first study, certain sources of variation in human olfactory perceptions were highlighted and their respective impacts on a number of olfactory tasks were assessed. 

Abstract Sexual orientation influences human olfactory function. Following a brief review of the biological basis of homosexuality, this chapter explores exactly how olfactory function varies as a result of sexual orientation. Three separate areas of research are considered recent studies on the neural processing of social odorants by heterosexuals and homosexuals the influence of sexual orientation on the production and perception of body odours and the influence of female sexual orientation on menstrual synchrony. 

Flowever, human olfactory sensitivity, and especially aroma perception, can be affected by a large number of factors, such as age, gender, smoking habits, disease, or injury [5-8]. Such modulation of olfactory capacity can have dramatic impact on the results of sensory evaluation studies based on olfactory tasks. This is especially important in studies using only a few panelists [gas chromatography olfactometry (GCO), quantitative flavor profiling, etc.]. It thus seems that food flavor studies eould benefit from their panelists being assessed for olfactory and other sensory performance. 

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