All over the world, people have the same olfactory preferences, regardless of their origin or cultural background.
- The pleasantness of odors can be predicted by the physico-chemical properties of molecules.
- Human olfactory perception is strongly limited by universal principles.
“Human beings share sensory systems with a common anatomical pattern, but individual sensory experience nevertheless varies. With respect to olfaction, it is unclear to what extent sensory perception, particularly the perception of pleasantness of smells, is based on universal principles, dictated by the cultural environment or simply by a matter of personal taste”, said researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the University of Oxford, UK. To find out for sure, they decided to carry out a study, including the results were published in the journal Current Biology April 4.
The smell of vanilla is unanimous
In order to carry out their work, the scientists recruited 225 adults with different lifestyles. Some were city dwellers, others hunter-gatherers or from farming and fishing villages. “Since these groups live in very different odor environments, such as rainforest, coast, mountain, and city, we are studying many different types of olfactory experiences”said Artin Arshamian, author of the research, in a statement. The authors asked them to rank several smells from the most “pleasant” to the most “unpleasant”.
Although the results varied slightly from person to person, most participants had the same answers regarding the most “pleasant” and the most “foul” smell. According to the works, the smell of vanilla was considered the most “pleasant”. The latter was followed by ethyl butanoate, which smells like pineapple and peach. The most “unpleasant” smell was isovaleric acid, which is found in many foods, such as cheese, soy milk, apple juice, but also in the sweat of the feet.
“There is a universal perception of smells”
According to the researchers, the cultural background plays a minimal role (6%) in the perception of the “pleasant” character of odors. The scientists indicated that the variation in responses was caused by the particular molecular structure of the odors (41%) and personal preferences (54%), “which may be due to learning, but also to our genetic heritage.”
“We now know that there is a universal perception of smells that is determined by molecular structure and explains why we like or dislike a certain smell. The next step is to investigate why this is so by linking these knowledge about what happens in the brain when we smell a particular smell”, concluded Artin Arshamian.
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