Prediction of olfactory response based on age, gender and smoking habits

The measurement of olfaction has been neglected compared with the other senses. Recently, some progress has been made in the search for an instrument to objectively measure olfaction. This article outlines the early test results of a low cost, computer-based olfactometer which uses the frequency content of evoked potentials to quantify a subject's response to an olfactory stimulus. Clinical trials have been undertaken to establish the validity of the olfactometer and several thousand tests have been carried out using patients with olfactory dysfunctions as well as normals for norm referencing. The paper discusses a theoretical model for olfaction based on the age, gender and smoking habits of a subject. The validity of the model is then compared with the experimental data. The correlation between the model and the experimental results is strong.