Sense Of Smell May Improve With Training

Drs Julie Chapuis and Donald A Wilson from New York University (NYU) Langone School of Medicine have conducted a research after which they conclude that, sense of smell may improve or degrade any time through a person's lifetime. Diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Schizophrenia care normally linked with the 'sense of smell' factor, but these doctors say, brain receptors has a lot to do with them instead. The latter can be improved through training, hence a glimpse of hope.

In it's article, MNT publishes, "Humans detect smells because odor molecules interact with nerves in the nose that send impulses to the olfactory bulb, a structure beneath the frontal cortex at the front of the brain. The olfactory bulb also connects directly with other parts of the brain such as the amygdala that controls emotions, and higher-order regions like the prefrontal cortex, the seat of important "executive functions" like planning, thinking, organizing, and making choices".


After conducting intense experiments on rats in their laboratory, scientists suggested that, while losing one's sense of smell may reflect real damage to the sensory system, in some cases it could be a matter of "use it or lose it".

"Odor training could help fix broken noses," says Dr Wilson.


Curious readers may read about rat's experiment here