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Updated: Sep 22, 2025
10:42
A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function
Published on: July 30, 2017
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Olfaction and Executive Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review.
Vasudeva Murthy Challakere Ramaswamy1, Peter William Schofield1,2
1School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
Frontiers in Psychology
|May 26, 2022
Summary
Olfactory tests can assess changes in smell and link to cognitive functions, particularly executive functions. Combining smell tests with phonemic fluency tasks may improve their predictive value in clinical settings.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Olfactory changes are increasingly linked to neuropsychiatric conditions.
- Neural pathways for smell overlap with those for cognitive and executive functions.
- Olfactory tests are evolving as supplementary tools in clinical and research practice.
Approach:
- Systematic review of 70 English-language studies.
- Investigated associations between olfaction and frontal lobe functioning tasks.
- Examined, tabulated, and critically evaluated data from identified studies.
Key Points:
- Olfactory test performance, especially olfactory identification, correlates with executive functioning and behavioral measures.
- Similar associations are observed in non-clinical populations, questioning olfactory tests' specificity.
- Frontal lobe function is a key area of overlap between olfactory processing and cognitive tasks.
Conclusions:
- Olfactory testing holds potential for assessing neuropsychiatric conditions and cognitive function.
- Challenges remain in utilizing olfactory test scores as proxy measures for non-olfactory phenomena.
- Combining olfactory testing with phonemic fluency may enhance predictive value in clinical and research applications.
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