Olfaction News and Research

RSS

Smell loss linked to worse nutritional status in patients with chronic kidney disease

A new study indicates that many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have some degree of smell loss, and that impairments in patients' ability to smell are linked with worse nutritional status.

4 Aug 2017

New findings could help better understand aging process and extend lifespan

Restricting how much you eat without starving has been shown to robustly extend lifespan in more than 20 species of animals including primates.

2 Aug 2017

Long-distance brain connections can target, stimulate discrete pools of stem cells

Stem cells persist in the adult mammalian brain and generate new neurons throughout life. A research group at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel reports in the current issue of "Science" that long-distance brain connections can target discrete pools of stem cells in their niche and stimulate them to divide and produce specific subtypes of olfactory bulb neurons

16 Jun 2017

Decoding the Exposome Through Breath Biomarkers

The human exposome is probably best defined as “everything that is not the genome.” This is a bit tongue in cheek, but basically, the exposome is comprised of all of the chemicals in your body from the environment, food, consumer products, their metabolites, the endogenous “housekeeping” chemicals, the cellular wastes from energy production, as well as all of the messenger compounds and life supporting chemicals.

From Pittcon 24 Feb 2017

Crowdsourcing effort helps develop mathematical model to forecast scent of molecule

You can anticipate a color before you see it, based solely on the length of light waves. Music can be interpreted from notes on a page without being heard. Not so with odor. The only way to tell if something will smell like roses or turpentine, sea breeze or gasoline, is to sniff it.

21 Feb 2017

Researchers find new way to quantify olfactory sensory neurons using PET radiotracer

Olfactory health - how well we are able to smell - is a reliable marker of the health of the brain, but the "smell identification tests" commonly used in studies of olfactory health do not offer a complete picture of what is happening.

24 Jan 2017

Noise levels in nightclubs may induce hearing loss

A new study raises concerns about the noise level in nightclubs. Researchers in Southern California have found that the average continuous level of noise in some nightclubs is at least 91.2 dBA (A-weighted decibels).

16 Sep 2016

Endogenous cannabinoid plays crucial role in activating spermatozoa for fertilization

During fertilization, a sperm must first fuse with the plasma membrane and then penetrate the female egg in order to penetrate it.

30 Aug 2016

Anesthetic administered with nasal spray effective in preventing pain during dental treatment

A fear of pain causes many people with dental phobias to avoid or delay needed treatment. In some cases, the injection of a numbing agent can be the most painful part of the visit.

26 Aug 2016

Scientists use machine learning to interpret mosquito genome

Scientists are using machine learning to identify important sequences of DNA within the mosquito genome that regulate how the insect's cells develop and behave.

12 Jul 2016

New study heightens concerns over detrimental impact of air pollution on gene associated with AD risk

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Valle de México, Boise State, and North Carolina, the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, and Centro Médico Cozumel heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of air pollution on hippocampal metabolites as early markers of neurodegeneration in young urbanites carrying an allele 4 of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE).

26 Sep 2015

Scientists receive $6.4 million NSF grant to study smell navigation

A team of scientists, including a UC Berkeley pioneer in odor mapping, has received a $6.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to dig deeper into how humans and animals navigate by using their sense of smell and converting odors into spatial information.

26 Sep 2015

ASU and three partner institutions awarded NSF grant to study how healthy brains create memories of odors

Like most animals, we rely on our sense of smell for survival. It's critical to our health and an important factor in our quality of life.

23 Sep 2015

Olfactory function may inform Parkinson’s prognosis

Olfactory function is preserved in about a quarter of patients with Parkinson’s disease, and may be predictive of disease course, say researchers.

18 Sep 2015

UC Berkeley study shows humans can navigate through their sense of smell

Like homing pigeons, humans have a nose for navigation because our brains are wired to convert smells into spatial information, new research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows.

19 Jun 2015

Gender influences nonmotor symptoms in early Parkinson’s

The predominant nonmotor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease vary between men and women, shows an analysis of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative study.

4 Jun 2015

Neuroscientists reveal how olfaction is encoded in the brain

In a study that helps to deconstruct how olfaction is encoded in the brain, neuroscientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a type of neuron that appears to help tune, amplify and dampen neuronal responses to chemosensory inputs from the nasal cavity.

10 Mar 2015

New study heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of APOE ε4 in urban children

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Montana, Carleton, and North Carolina, and the Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, heightens concerns over the detrimental impact of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele -- the most prevalent genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease -- upon cognition, olfaction, and metabolic brain indices in healthy urban children and teens.

9 Feb 2015

New study reveals how the brain can distinguish between good and bad smells

Whether an odor is pleasant or disgusting to an organism is not just a matter of taste. Often, an organism's survival depends on its ability to make just such a discrimination, because odors can provide important information about food sources, oviposition sites or suitable mates.

17 Dec 2014

Study shows that mice can identify specific odors amid complex olfactory environments

For many animals, making sense of the clutter of sensory stimuli is often a matter or literal life or death. Exactly how animals separate objects of interest, such as food sources or the scent of predators, from background information, however, remains largely unknown.

4 Aug 2014