Our affinity for certain smells is biologically and not culturally predetermined. According to the experiments of the neurobiologist Rafi Haddad, published in the journal 'Journal of Neuroscience', the favorite scents for the common of the mortals are the lime, the orange, the grapefruit, the mint and the peach.
After working with 86 unique odorous molecules in various aromatic mixtures, neurobiologists at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel have succeeded in obtaining a neutral odor, that is, one that the human nose values as "neither pleasant nor unpleasant".
A study from the Dutch University of Utrecht published in the journal Psychological Science reveals that humans are capable of communicating their emotional states (fear, indignation, disgust ...) through chemical signals that are perceived through smell.
A team of scientists has restored the sense of smell in mice with a human genetic disorder that causes congenital anosmia, that is, the innate inability to perceive odors. The new treatment uses gene therapy to allow cilia, cellular structures essential for olfactory function, to grow. These hair-shaped structures are involved in multiple diseases that affect from the kidney to the eyes, as the authors explain in the journal 'Nature Medicine'.
The brain changes the way it works during colds to preserve and protect the sense of smell, according to a study by Northwestern Medicine in Chicago (United States). Thus, it is explained that changes occur in the brain when you have a blocked nose and there is a "lack of olfactory information" that the brain tries to compensate.
Studying the scent of the jasmine flower, researcher Hanns Hatt and his colleagues at Heinrich Hane University in Susseldorf have found that it has practically the same effect as certain sedatives and anesthetics: it relieves anxiety and indexes sleep.
A team of scientists, led by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, has discovered that the olfactory bulb of humans - a structure of the vertebrate brain that processes sensory input from the nose - is distinguished from that of all other mammals in that, after being born, new neurons no longer develop in it. This fact could be the reason that humans lack a sense of smell as acute as that of animals.
Although it may seem that smell is a sense with little relevance in our lives, the truth is that we use it to carry out many daily activities. A team of researchers from the University of Dresden has studied how anosmia, or loss of smell, affects people's lives.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
