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Related Concept Videos

Olfaction

Olfaction

The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase

Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase

Published on: April 23, 2019

Machine-learned analysis of side-differences in odor identification performance.

Jörn Lötsch¹, Thomas Hummel²

¹Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Goethe - University, Theodor Stern Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Fraunhofer Institute of Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology - Project Group Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (IME-TMP), Theodor - Stern - Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

|November 6, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Olfactory testing shows significant differences between nostrils, indicating that unilateral testing may miss crucial information. Factors like age, sex, and cause of smell loss influence these lateral differences.

Keywords:

Clustering Data science Neuronal networks Olfaction Patients Self-organizing maps

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Last Updated: Jan 4, 2026

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Ophthalmology
Clinical Medicine

Background:

A right-left dichotomy in olfactory processing is recognized across multiple levels.
Clinical olfactory testing often uses a birhinal approach, potentially overlooking lateralized differences.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between olfactory side-differences and subject age, sex, and the etiology/degree of olfactory loss.
To analyze the agreement between nostrils in odor identification tasks across a large cohort.

Main Methods:

Assessed the detection of 12 odors from a validated clinical test separately for each nostril.
Analyzed data from 6016 subjects reporting olfactory loss due to various causes.
Utilized hierarchical and deep clustering for odor structure analysis.

Main Results:

In 26.8% of tasks, odors were identified correctly by only one nostril.
Subject age, sex, odor type, and etiology of olfactory loss were identified as modulators of between-nostril agreement (Cohen's kappa).
Clustering revealed odor structures potentially related to familiarity, with head trauma showing distinct lateral effects.

Conclusions:

Between-nostril agreement in odor identification is limited, suggesting unilateral testing may miss vital information.
Lateral olfactory differences are influenced by age, sex, odor characteristics, and the cause of olfactory dysfunction.
Findings suggest potential differential impacts on left/right hemisphere olfactory processing, especially after head trauma.