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A new study has revealed a genetic mutation that makes people who carry it be less susceptible to the smell of fish. For some of these people, fish's off-putting odor might even smell like caramel or roses.
— Read more in People With This Rare Gene Mutation Can't Smell Fishy Scents at International Business Times.
Posted by Robin on 6 Comments
Loss of smell and taste continued for months with little improvement. Then one day, out of the blue, tap water tasted really chemical to me. This was in July, and rapidly, everyday things became distorted in a vile way. My husband’s aftershave is horrendous. I can’t go out to eat or drink. I hold my nose to drink even water.
— For Kelly De-Gol, Covid-19 brought first anosmia, then parosmia. Read more in Why Losing Your Sense of Smell With Covid-19 Is So Traumatizing at Elemental.
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Indeed, during odor delivery in sleep the researchers noted that the two hemispheres of the subjects’ brains exhibited the kind of electrical activity thought to be involved in memory consolidation, with the half that was “smelling the roses” showing the more synchronized activity that is important for the consolidation process. When the subjects woke up and retook the test, they were better at remembering the locations of words that had been presented to the side of the brain that had been stimulated with the smell while they slept.
— Read more in One-Sided Memories and Sleep: A unique sleep experiment to uncover brain activity comes up smelling of roses at Weizman Institute.
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In their study, which followed nearly 1,800 participants over 10 years, they found that having a consistent strong sense of smell was associated with less risk of dementia onset. The study also considered the relationship between the efficacy of other senses (like hearing and vision) and dementia but concluded that the association with smell was the strongest.
— MindBodyGreen, reporting on a study done at the University of California at San Francisco. Read more in A Continued Strong Sense Of Smell Is Associated With Lower Dementia Risk, Study Says.
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In most animals, a broad range of predator odors can trigger hardwired fight-flight-or-freeze fear responses that are key to each animal's individual survival and the survival of the species. Mice can detect chemosignals associated with a predator's scent that warn a mouse of life-threatening danger. Because of this, mice tend to display innate fear-like behavior in response to diverse predator odors such as cat saliva, major urine proteins (MUPs) from a rat, or the smell of snakeskin.
— Read more in Smells Can Become Hardwired to Trigger Brain-Wide Anxiety at Psychology Today.