What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life (30 page)

the quintessential doggy task
J. Porter, B. Craven, et al., “Mechanisms of scent-tracking in humans,”
Nature Neuroscience
10 (2007):27–29.

drug dogs and humans have almost identical sensitivity
Lorenzo, Wan, et al., “Laboratory and field experiments,” p. 1213.

“of extremely slight service”
Charles Darwin,
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
, vol. 1 (London: John Murray, 1871), pp. 23–24.

“Among the apes it has greatly lost importance”
Havelock Ellis,
Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Selection in Man
(Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company, 1922), pp. 47, 48.

“The sense of smell in primates is greatly reduced”
S. Rouquier, A. Blancher, and D. Giorgi, “The olfactory receptor gene repertoire in primates and mouse: Evidence for reduction of the functional fraction in primates,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
, 97 (2000):2870–74.

questioning the textbook distinction
T. D. Smith, K. P. Bhatnagar, et al., “Distribution of olfactory epithelium in the primate nasal cavity: Are microsmia and macrosmia valid morphological concepts?”
Anatomical Record
281 (2004):1173–81; T. D. Smith and K. P. Bhatnagar, “Microsmatic primates: Reconsidering how and when size matters,”
Anatomical Record
279 (2004):24–31.

neurobiologist Gordon Shepherd
G. M. Shepherd, “The human sense of smell: Are we better than we think?”
PLoS Biology
2 (2004):572–75.

sensory physiologist Mathias Laska
M. Laska, D. Genzel, and A. Wieser, “The number of functional olfactory receptor genes and the relative size of olfactory brain structures are poor predictors of olfactory discrimination performance with enantiomers,”
Chemical Senses
30 (2005):171–75; M. Laska, A. Wieser, et al., “Olfactory responsiveness to two odorous steroids in three species of nonhuman primates,”
Chemical Senses
30 (2005):505–11.

New evidence suggests
P. Quignon, E. Kirkness, et al., “Comparison of the canine and human olfactory receptor gene repertoires,”
Genome Biology
4(2003):R80; Y. Gilad, O. Man, and G. Glusman, “A comparison of the human and chimpanzee olfactory receptor gene repertoires,”
Genome Research
15 (2005):224–30; Quignon, et al., “The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires,”
Genome Biology
6 (2005):R83, pp. 1–9.

compare odor receptor subfamilies
P. Quignon, et al., “The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires,”
Genome Biology
6 (2005):R83, pp. 1–9; P. A. Godfrey, B. Malnic, and L. B. Buck, “The mouse olfactory receptor gene family,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
101 (2004):2156–61;B. Malnic, P. A. Godfrey, and L. B. Buck, “The human olfactory receptor gene family,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
101(2004):2584–89; Y. Gilad, O. Man, and G. Glusman, “A comparison of the human and chimpanzee olfactory receptor gene repertoires,”
Genome Research
15 (2005):224–30.

“One morning when I walked”
Jack Kornfield,
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
(New York: Bantam, 1993),p. 125.

Experts outperform novices
M. Bende and S. Nordin, “Perceptual learning in olfaction: Professional wine tasters versus controls,”
Physiology & Behavior
62 (1997):1065–70; H. T. Lawless, “Flavor description of white wine by ‘expert’ and nonexpert wine consumers,”
Journal of Food Science
49(1984):120–23; W. V. Parr, D. Heatherbell, and K. G. White, “Demystifying wine expertise: Olfactory threshold, perceptual skill and semantic memory in expert and novice wine judges,”
Chemical Senses
27 (2002):747–55.

their job can be done with only an adequate nose
Calkin and Jellinek,
Perfumery,
p. 3.

better olfactory imagery ability
A. N. Gilbert, M. Crouch, and S. E. Kemp, “Olfactory and visual mental imagery,”
Journal of Mental Imagery
22(1998):137–46.

professional perfume researchers
Byung-Chan Min, et al., “Analysis of mutual information content for EEG responses to odor stimulation for subjects classified by occupation,”
Chemical Senses
28 (2003):741–49.

brain activity in wine sommeliers
A. Castriota-Scanderbeg, G. E. Hagberg, et al., “The appreciation of wine by sommeliers: A functional magnetic resonance study of sensory integration,”
Neuroimage
25 (2005): 570–78.

Süskind’s novel
Patrick Süskind,
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
, translated by John E. Woods (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986).

“the fragrances poured into me”
Salman Rushdie,
Midnight’s Children
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), p. 378.

“I suggest that if the police”
Helen Keller,
Midstream: My Later Life
(New York: Crowell Publishing Co., 1929), p. 165.

the bills reeked of marijuana
Associated Press, “Smelly Money Lands Indiana Man in Jail,” April 7, 2005.

made its way to the Ohio Supreme Court State v. Moore
(2000), 90 Ohio St.3d 47.

forensic sniff tests
R. L. Doty, T. Wudarski, et al., “Marijuana odor perception: Studies modeled from probable cause cases,”
Law and Human Behavior
28 (2004):223–33.

detecting drunk drivers
H. Moskowitz, M. Burns, and S. Ferguson, “Police officers’ detection of breath odors from alcohol ingestion,”
Accident Analysis and Prevention
31 (1999):175–80.

no corroborating evidence is needed
E. Hendrie, “The motor vehicle exception,”
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
74, no. 8 (August 2005).

cited by the defense United States of America v. Burton Dean Viers
, CA No. 06-30266, Appellant’s Opening Brief.

Chapter 4. The Art of the Sniff

Early experiments were ingenious
Edwin G. Boring,
Sensation and Perception in the History of Experimental Psychology
(New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1942), p. 440.

A second, more grotesque experiment
E. Paulsen, “Experimentelle Untersuchungen über die Strömung der Luft der Nasenhöhle,”
Sitzungber. d. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss.
85 (1882):328.

sophisticated computer models
K. Zhao, P. Dalton, et al., “Numerical modeling of turbulent and laminar airflow and odorant transport during sniffing in the human and rat nose,”
Chemical Senses
31 (2006):107–18.

a highly regarded neurological surgeon
J. S. Oppenheim, “Neurosurgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital,”
Journal of Neurosurgery
80 (1994):935–38.

came up with a method
C. A. Elsberg and I. Levy, “The sense of smell (I): A new and simple method of quantitative olfactometry,”
Bulletin of the Neurological Institute of New York
4 (1935):5–19; Elsberg, Levy, and E. D. Brewer, “A new method for testing the sense of smell and for the establishment of olfactory values for odorous substance,”
Science
83 (1936):211–12.

Zwaardemaker’s device
H. Zwaardemaker, “Präzisionsolfaktometrie.”
Arch. für Layng. und Rhinol.
15 (1904):171–77.

Elsberg’s results Time,
November 25, 1935, p. 40;
New York Times
, November 13, 1935.

psychology professor at UCLA
F. Nowell Jones, “A test of the validity of the Elsberg method of olfactometry,”
American Journal of Psychology
66 (1953):81–85; “The reliability of olfactory thresholds obtained by sniffing,”
American Journal of Psychology
68 (1955):289–90; “A comparison of the methods of olfactory stimulation: Blasting vs. sniffing,” ibid., 486–88. He pulls his punches somewhat in the later paper, but the deed was done.

“we might be better off today”
B. M. Wenzel, “Problems of odor research from the viewpoint of a psychologist,”
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
58 (1954):58–61.

beginning in 1982
D. G. Laing, “Characterisation of human behaviour during odour perception,”
Perception
11 (1982):221–30.

“a single natural sniff”
D. G. Laing, “Natural sniffing gives optimum odour perception for humans,”
Perception
12 (1983):99–117; “Identification of single dissimilar odors is achieved by humans with a single sniff,”
Physiology & Behavior
37 (1986):163–70; “Optimum perception of odor intensity by humans,”
Physiology & Behavior
34 (1985):569–74.

The dictionary’s dichotomy Oxford English Dictionary
, 2nd Edition, 1989.

Berkeley smell researcher Noam Sobel
N. Sobel, V. Prabhakaran, et al., “Odorant-induced and sniff-induced activation in the cerebellum of the human,”
Journal of Neuroscience
18 (1998):8990–9001; B. N. Johnson, J. D. Mainland, and N. Sobel, “Rapid olfactory processing implicates subcortical control of an olfactomotor system,”
Journal of Neurophysiology
90 (2003):1084–94; N. Sobel, V. Prabhakaran, et al., “Sniffing and smelling: Separate subsystems in the human olfactory cortex,”
Nature
392 (1998): 282–86.

imagined odors
M. Bensafi, J. Porter, et al., “Olfactomotor activity during imagery mimics that during perception,”
Nature Neuroscience
6 (2003): 1142–44.

“the sniff is part of the percept”
J. Mainland and N. Sobel, “The sniff is part of the olfactory percept,”
Chemical Senses
31 (2006):181–96.

A new smell test
R. A. Frank, M. F. Dulay, et al., “A comparison of the sniff magnitude test and the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test in children and nonnative English speakers,”
Physiology & Behavior
81(2004):475–80; Frank, Dulay, and R. C. Gesteland, “Assessment of the Sniff Magnitude Test as a clinical test of olfactory function,”
Physiology & Behavior
78 (2003):195–204; Frank, Gesteland, et al., “Characterization of the sniff magnitude test,”
Archives of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery
132(2006):532–36.

“We have glasses to help”
“Can a Robot Have a Nose?”
Popular Science Monthly
, October 1931, p. 70.

resembles a polite yawn
B. Risberg-Berlin, R. Ylitalo, and C. Finizia, “Screening and rehabilitation of olfaction after total laryngectomy in Swedish patients: Results from an intervention study using the Nasal Airflow-Inducing Maneuver,”
Archives of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery
132 (2006):301–6.

tracheostomy valve
S. W. Lichtman, I. L. Birnbaum, et al., “Effect of a tracheostomy speaking valve on secretions, arterial oxygenation, and olfaction: A quantitative evaluation,”
Journal of Speech and Hearing Research
38(1995):549–55; D. S. Braz, M. M. Ribas, et al., “Quality of life and depression in patients undergoing total and partial laryngectomy,”
Clinics
60(2005):135–42.

Parkinson’s disease
N. Sobel, M. E. Thomason, et al., “An impairment in sniffing contributes to the olfactory impairment in Parkinson’s disease,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
98 (2001):4154–59.

device to help the sniff-impaired
Roy F. Knight, “Smelling Aid Device,” U.S. Patent 5,522,253, issued June 4, 1996.

first marketed in 1993
“GlaxoSmithKline to Acquire Nasal-Strip Maker CNS,”
Wall Street Journal
, October 10, 2006.

dilator makes odors smell stronger
D. E. Hornung, C. Chin, et al., “Effect of nasal dilators on perceived odor intensity,”
Chemical Senses
22(1997):177–80; D. E. Hornung, D. J. Smith, et al., “Effect of nasal dilators on nasal structures, sniffing strategies, and olfactory ability,”
Rhinology
39(2001):84–87.

intensity of food aromas
B. Raudenbush and B. Meyer, “Effect of nasal dilators on pleasantness, intensity and sampling behaviors of foods in the oral cavity,”
Rhinology
39 (2001):80–83.

Even one minute
P. Dalton and C. J. Wysocki, “The nature and duration of adaptation following long-term odor exposure,”
Perception & Psychophysics
58 (1996):781–92.

“While awaiting results”
E. E. Slosson, “A lecture experiment in hallucinations,”
Psychological Review
6 (1899):407–8. A few years later, A. S. Edwards at Cornell University got similar results in the lab, published as “An experimental study of sensory suggestion,”
American Journal of Psychology
26(1915):99–129.

sensory expert Michael O’Mahony
M. O’Mahony, “Smell illusions and suggestion: Reports of smells contingent on tones played on television and radio,”
Chemical Senses & Flavor
3 (1978):183–89.

We sprayed water mist
S. C. Knasko, A. N. Gilbert, and J. Sabini, “Emotional state, physical well-being and performance in the presence of feigned ambient odor,”
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
20 (1990):1345–57.

sit in a test chamber
For references to Dalton’s work, see P. Dalton, “Cognitive influences on health symptoms from acute chemical exposure,”
Health Psychology
18 (1999):579–90.

an authority figure in a lab coat
P. Dalton, “Odor, irritation and perception of health risk,”
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
75 (2002):283–90.

reverse the aromatherapy effects
C. E. Campenni, E. J. Crawley, and M. E. Meier, “Role of suggestion in odor-induced mood change,”
Psychological Reports
94 (2004):1127–36.

Norwegian air ambulance
“Near disaster after warning stink ignored,”
Aftenposten
, June 5, 2003.

Chapter 5. A Nose for the Mouth

“Blindfold a person”
H. T. Finck, “The gastronomic value of odours,”
Contemporary Review
50 (1886):680–95.