Rich Travs
Mon, Dec-18-06, 17:16
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=bizarre&id=4861784
Scientists say that, with training, humans could perform some
of the scenting tasks now done strictly by animals.
Imagine yourself blindfolded and wearing earplugs: Could you
follow a chocolate scent with only your nose to guide you?
Surprisingly, most of us can, according to a new study
published in Nature Neuroscience this week.
Researchers put blindfolds, earplugs and gloves on human
volunteers, and asked them to find a chocolate scent trail on
the ground and track it to the end like a dog would.
Researchers found that volunteers could use some of the same
smell techniques animals use to follow scent trails. ... "It
depends a lot on specifically what you want to compare," said
Porter. While dogs can detect many odors at much lower
concentrations than humans, "there are examples where humans
are actually better. It is not necessarily that the human
sense of smell is worse than that of other animals, it is just
different."
Humans can detect very small concentrations of certain
chemicals, experts said. One example is androstenedione, a
compound present in human sweat.
"If you put a drop of it in an Olympic-size swimming pool, a
human being is able to tell the difference between the pool
with the drop and the pool without it," said Dr. Noam Sobel,
associate professor at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
and the department of psychology at the University of
California at Berkeley.
"This is an astounding ability."
Differences in the ability to detect odors may exist between
men and women, experts said.
"Traditionally, women spend more time in the kitchen, and
studies have shown that they are generally better smellers
than men," said Gottfried. "Women are not necessarily born
with a better olfactory sense, it's that they pay more
attention to smells because of cooking and putting on
perfume." ... Not only could most of us follow a scent
trail using two nostrils, our sniffing ability improves
with practice.
"With a little training, the volunteers in the study got quite
a bit better," said Shepherd. "This raises the question that
if humans had training, maybe they'd do a lot better." ...
Scientists say that, with training, humans could perform some
of the scenting tasks now done strictly by animals.
Imagine yourself blindfolded and wearing earplugs: Could you
follow a chocolate scent with only your nose to guide you?
Surprisingly, most of us can, according to a new study
published in Nature Neuroscience this week.
Researchers put blindfolds, earplugs and gloves on human
volunteers, and asked them to find a chocolate scent trail on
the ground and track it to the end like a dog would.
Researchers found that volunteers could use some of the same
smell techniques animals use to follow scent trails. ... "It
depends a lot on specifically what you want to compare," said
Porter. While dogs can detect many odors at much lower
concentrations than humans, "there are examples where humans
are actually better. It is not necessarily that the human
sense of smell is worse than that of other animals, it is just
different."
Humans can detect very small concentrations of certain
chemicals, experts said. One example is androstenedione, a
compound present in human sweat.
"If you put a drop of it in an Olympic-size swimming pool, a
human being is able to tell the difference between the pool
with the drop and the pool without it," said Dr. Noam Sobel,
associate professor at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
and the department of psychology at the University of
California at Berkeley.
"This is an astounding ability."
Differences in the ability to detect odors may exist between
men and women, experts said.
"Traditionally, women spend more time in the kitchen, and
studies have shown that they are generally better smellers
than men," said Gottfried. "Women are not necessarily born
with a better olfactory sense, it's that they pay more
attention to smells because of cooking and putting on
perfume." ... Not only could most of us follow a scent
trail using two nostrils, our sniffing ability improves
with practice.
"With a little training, the volunteers in the study got quite
a bit better," said Shepherd. "This raises the question that
if humans had training, maybe they'd do a lot better." ...