smell

The brain regions where odors are processed - the temporal lobe and the olfactory bulb - were larger in early Homo sapiens than in Homo neanderthalensis, according to research led by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and published in the journal Nature Communications.

Many of the less attractive odors in some vegetables are due to sulfur compounds. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower owe their flower to sulfur compounds called isothiocioanates. In raw vegetables, these compounds are bound to sugar and become odorless.

In the nose there are 400 different types of olfactory receptors that are organized according to a scale that places the most pleasant at one extreme and the most foul at the opposite pole. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Weizmann Institute (USA) in a study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Doron Lancet and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute (Israel) conducted a study in which they analyzed the ability of different subjects to detect odors such as the scent of eucalyptus, spearmint, banana or sweat. In this way, they identified a gene, OR11H7P, associated with the perception of the smell of sweat.

Ghrelin, a stomach hormone known to stimulate appetite and fat storage, also increases our sense of smell to locate food.

A team of European scientists led by the German scientist Trese Leinders-Zufall has for the first time established a link between the sense of smell and pain: people with a mutation in the SCN9A gene, which makes them unable to feel pain, cannot smell either.

South American capuchin monkeys "perfume" themselves by rubbing their hands, feet and backs with their own urine to attract females, according to a study published in the American Journal of Primatology. With this practice, they send their partners a message of sexual availability, according to the authors.

Scent Sciences has developed a device that reproduces and releases the odors of video games. For example, if your character crawls through a forest, thanks to this device you will be able to smell the unmistakable aroma of pine trees, and if the action takes place in the sea an intense aroma of salt water will invade your living room.