#Conventional wisdom tells us that the human nose is hopeless. We are psychologically disconnected from our noses, whereas #vision is so much more (consciously) powerful in many everyday situations. However, recent research demonstrates that we #should take a step back and reconsider this conventional wisdom. Our noses are subtle enough to distinguish the area in #which a wine has been produced (see my work on the smell of #terroir). It is capable of learning to become #more “sensitive” over time (see my work enhanced odor sensitivity following fear #conditioning). Our noses can even unconsciously #trigger targeted scanning of the visual field (see my work on eye #movements).
#The nose is proficient enough to promote positive health-outcomes (as we comment on #here and demonstrate in Parkinson’s #patients), and guide everyday actions (as we #reveal here and #here).
#Still, more work needs to be aimed at standardizing and comparing odor tests (see my work on the development of smell #tests for children) as well as providing a #cross-culture assessment to promote #large-scale assessment of the sense of smell.
