THAT'S THE WHY:Given the choice, most of us would rather smell the delicate aroma of rose than inhale the pong of old runners. But why are some smells more pleasant than others?
Our perception could be influenced by the way our smell receptors are spatially organised, according to a new study published online in Nature Neurosciencelast week.
There are thought to be millions of copies of about 400 intact smell receptor subtypes in the human adult nose, but little is known about their spatial distribution, note the researchers.
In what sounds like an interesting experimental setup, they inserted electrodes into the nasal passages of 57 volunteers and measured the responses of nerves at various sites to smells ranging from pleasant to disagreeable.
And they found that smell receptor subtypes were grouped into distinct sites that responded to particular types of scent.
“A location that responded maximally to a pleasant odorant was likely to respond strongly to other pleasant odorants, and a location that responded maximally to an unpleasant odorant was likely to respond strongly to other unpleasant odorants,” write the study authors.
“We uncovered a clear correlation between the pattern of nerve reaction to various smells and the pleasantness of those smells,” said lead author Prof Noam Sobel in a release.
“As in sight and hearing, the receptors for our sense of smell are spatially organised in a way that reflects the nature of the sensory experience.”
