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Hyperosmia is an increased olfactory acuity (heightened sense of smell), usually caused by a lower threshold for odor. [1] This perceptual disorder arises when there is an abnormally increased signal at any point between the olfactory receptors and the olfactory cortex.
Age is the strongest reason for olfactory decline in healthy adults, having even greater impact than does cigarette smoking. Age-related changes in smell function often go unnoticed and smell ability is rarely tested clinically unlike hearing and vision. 2% of people under 65 years of age have chronic smelling problems.
A common psychophysical test of olfactory ability is the triangle test. In this test, the participant is given three odors to smell. Of these three odors, two are the same and one is different, and the participant must choose which odor is the unique one. To test the sensitivity of olfaction, the staircase method is often used.
After each scent is released, the patient smells the level and detects the odor from the four choices. There is an answer column on the back of the test booklet, and the test is scored out of 40 items. The score is compared to scores in a normative database from 4000 normal individuals, this tells the level of absolute smell function. [1]
Many tests have been developed to test olfactory memory in patients with mental disorders. The 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) [44] and the 12-item Brief Smell Identification Test, [45] that was developed from the UPSIT, both test olfactory identification using a scratch and sniff booklet. The Sniffin ...
The cause of congenital anosmia is not fully understood, but it is often linked to the underdevelopment or absence of the olfactory bulbs and tracts. [9] Diagnosis typically involves clinical evaluation, smell tests, and imaging studies to identify any structural abnormalities in the olfactory system. [10]
The olfactory bulb transmits smell information from the nose to the brain, and is thus necessary for a proper sense of smell. As a neural circuit, the glomerular layer receives direct input from afferent nerves, made up of the axons from approximately ten million olfactory receptor neurons in the olfactory mucosa, a region of the nasal cavity.
The Lady and the Unicorn, a Flemish tapestry depicting the sense of smell, 1484–1500. Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris.. Early scientific study of the sense of smell includes the extensive doctoral dissertation of Eleanor Gamble, published in 1898, which compared olfactory to other stimulus modalities, and implied that smell had a lower intensity discrimination.