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Life span changes in the verbal categorization of odors
M J Russell1, B J Cummings, B F Profitt
1Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, Davis.
Journal of Gerontology
|March 1, 1993
Summary
Older adults show changes in how they describe smells, with less agreement on odor perception. This suggests significant shifts in odor categorization throughout the lifespan.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Sensory Science
Background:
- Odor perception and description are crucial for human experience and safety.
- Understanding age-related changes in olfaction is important for public health and quality of life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related changes in odor perception and categorization.
- To analyze odor descriptor patterns across a wide age range.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 1.19 million respondents (ages 10-90) of the National Geographic Smell Survey.
- Employed an odor description task with six microencapsulated odorants and 11 descriptors.
- Generated age-specific multidimensional scaling maps based on odor descriptor profiles.
Main Results:
- Consensus on odor descriptors decreased with advancing age.
- Older adults more frequently endorsed non-modal descriptors in an odor-specific manner.
- Odor categorization showed significant changes across the lifespan, particularly in the sweet dimension of odor quality.
Conclusions:
- Odor categorization undergoes marked changes throughout the human lifespan.
- Age-related variability in odor perception is significant, especially in later decades.
- The sweet dimension of odor quality appears particularly susceptible to age-related changes.