In a recent study, scientists from Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) were able to show that humans can discriminate more than 1 trillion olfactory stimuli thus, clarifying earlier misconceptions which claimed that humans could only approximately discriminate 10, 000 . To conduct this experiment, researchers used 128 odorous molecules to create scented mixtures that contained 10, 20 or 30 different components and then they asked 26 participants, out of whom 17 were female, to identify the odour that smelled differently from a choice of three scented vials. The study reported that most individuals could smell about 1.72×1012 different mixtures made from 30 components that contained an overlap of 51.17%. However,
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In the study, micro-droplets of perspiration were collected and then were masked with 32 different fragrances one at a time. It was found that only two fragrances stopped women from being able to distinguish between the smell of sweat from the fragrance. On the other hand, 19 fragrances could successfully block men from distinguishing between the two odours (Wysocki, 2009). Thus, the results undoubtedly displayed that women were better at detecting differences in odour quality than men. Similarly, when the researchers at Rockefeller University conducted their experiment, it is likely that the women were able to discriminate more mixtures than the men and hence the researchers received a data set that contained a huge range. In addition to that, the study used 17 females but only 9 males and since females are shown to be better at discriminating odors; it is likely that the researchers received majority of their values on the higher end of the spectrum due to more female participants and fewer on the lower range. Thus, their calculated average of humans being able to discriminate 1.72×1012 different mixtures might be more representative of females than males and may seem a bit inflated if applied to the general
In the study, micro-droplets of perspiration were collected and then were masked with 32 different fragrances one at a time. It was found that only two fragrances stopped women from being able to distinguish between the smell of sweat from the fragrance. On the other hand, 19 fragrances could successfully block men from distinguishing between the two odours (Wysocki, 2009). Thus, the results undoubtedly displayed that women were better at detecting differences in odour quality than men. Similarly, when the researchers at Rockefeller University conducted their experiment, it is likely that the women were able to discriminate more mixtures than the men and hence the researchers received a data set that contained a huge range. In addition to that, the study used 17 females but only 9 males and since females are shown to be better at discriminating odors; it is likely that the researchers received majority of their values on the higher end of the spectrum due to more female participants and fewer on the lower range. Thus, their calculated average of humans being able to discriminate 1.72×1012 different mixtures might be more representative of females than males and may seem a bit inflated if applied to the general