Anosmia,also known as smell blindness,is the loss of the ability to detect one or more smells. Anosmia may be temporary or permanent. It differs from hyposmia,which is a decreased sensitivity to some or all smells.
Dysgeusia,also known as parageusia,is a distortion of the sense of taste. Dysgeusia is also often associated with ageusia,which is the complete lack of taste,and hypogeusia,which is a decrease in taste sensitivity. An alteration in taste or smell may be a secondary process in various disease states,or it may be the primary symptom. The distortion in the sense of taste is the only symptom,and diagnosis is usually complicated since the sense of taste is tied together with other sensory systems. Common causes of dysgeusia include chemotherapy,asthma treatment with albuterol,and zinc deficiency. Liver disease,hypothyroidism,and rarely certain types of seizures can also lead to dysgeusia. Different drugs could also be responsible for altering taste and resulting in dysgeusia. Due to the variety of causes of dysgeusia,there are many possible treatments that are effective in alleviating or terminating the symptoms of dysgeusia. These include artificial saliva,pilocarpine,zinc supplementation,alterations in drug therapy,and alpha lipoic acid.
A chemoreceptor,also known as chemosensor,is a specialized sensory receptor cell which transduces a chemical substance to generate a biological signal. This signal may be in the form of an action potential,if the chemoreceptor is a neuron,or in the form of a neurotransmitter that can activate a nerve fiber if the chemoreceptor is a specialized cell,such as taste receptors,or an internal peripheral chemoreceptor,such as the carotid bodies. In physiology,a chemoreceptor detects changes in the normal environment,such as an increase in blood levels of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) or a decrease in blood levels of oxygen (hypoxia),and transmits that information to the central nervous system which engages body responses to restore homeostasis.
A supertaster is a person who experiences the sense of taste with far greater intensity than average,with some studies showing an increased sensitivity to bitter tastes. It may be a cause of selective eating.
Richard L. Doty,Ph.D. is a physician and professor of psychology and otorhinolaryngology with a specialty in head and neck surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center since 1980.
Rose Marie Valdes Pangborn was a Mexican-American food scientist,food technologist,professor,and a pioneer in the field of sensory analysis of food attributes. She worked as a sensory scientist in the Experiment Station,Step VIII,served for 35 years at the University of California,Davis. She co-founded the Association for Chemoreception Sciences (ACHEMS),and the Sensory Reception Scholarship Fund (SSSF).
Hyposmia,or microsmia,is a reduced ability to smell and to detect odors. A related condition is anosmia,in which no odors can be detected. Some of the causes of olfaction problems are allergies,nasal polyps,viral infections and head trauma. In 2012 an estimated 9.8 million people aged 40 and older in the United States had hyposmia and an additional 3.4 million had anosmia/severe hyposmia.
Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as meat,poultry,lettuce,beer,milk as examples. It is similar to biochemistry in its main components such as carbohydrates,lipids,and protein,but it also includes areas such as water,vitamins,minerals,enzymes,food additives,flavors,and colors. This discipline also encompasses how products change under certain food processing techniques and ways either to enhance or to prevent them from happening. An example of enhancing a process would be to encourage fermentation of dairy products with microorganisms that convert lactose to lactic acid;an example of preventing a process would be stopping the browning on the surface of freshly cut apples using lemon juice or other acidulated water.
Jacob Steiner is a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,and a researcher of the physiology of the senses.
Chemesthesis is the chemical sensitivity of the skin and mucous membranes. Chemesthetic sensations arise when chemical compounds activate receptors associated with other senses that mediate pain,touch,and thermal perception. These chemical-induced reactions do not fit into the traditional sense categories of taste and smell.
Rachel Sarah Herz is a Canadian and American psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist,recognized for her research on the psychology of smell.
Danielle Renee Reed is an American geneticist employed at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. She is most notable for her papers regarding genetic variation in taste and obesity in mice and humans.
Ann C. Noble is a sensory chemist and retired professor from the University of California,Davis. During her time at the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology,Noble invented the "Aroma Wheel" which is credited with enhancing the public understanding of wine tasting and terminology. At the time of her hiring at UC Davis in 1974,Noble was the first woman hired as a faculty member of the Viticulture department. Noble retired from Davis in 2002 and in 2003 was named Emeritus Professor of Enology. Since retirement she has participated as a judge in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Cornelia Isabella "Cori" Bargmann is an American neurobiologist. She is known for her work on the genetic and neural circuit mechanisms of behavior using C. elegans,particularly the mechanisms of olfaction in the worm. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and had been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF and then Rockefeller University from 1995 to 2016. Since 2016 she is Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg initiative. In 2012 she was awarded the $1 million Kavli Prize,and in 2013 the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
The sense of smell,or olfaction,is the special sense through which smells are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions,including detecting hazards,and pheromones,and plays a role in taste.
John Joseph Powers was an American food scientist who was involved in the creation of the Food Science Department at University of Georgia in Athens,GA. He also served as President of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in 1986-87 and was Editor of the Journal of Food Science and "Journal of Food Quality.
The Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences offers 17 undergraduate majors,23 minors,and graduate programs in 18 major areas. The college awarded the nation's first baccalaureate degrees in agriculture in 1861.
Maurice Ptito is Professor of Visual Neuroscience at the School of Optometry. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Guest Professor at the Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance. He currently holds the Harland Sanders Research Chair in Vision Science.
Sensory design aims to establish an overall diagnosis of the sensory perceptions of a product,and define appropriate means to design or redesign it on that basis. It involves an observation of the diverse and varying situations in which a given product or object is used in order to measure the users' overall opinion of the product,its positive and negative aspects in terms of tactility,appearance,sound and so on.
The Association for Chemoreception Sciences is an international professional society in the field of chemosensory science. It is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote and advance the interests of the science of senses such as taste and smell. In order to do this,it holds an annual meeting that is a scientific forum for the research community and also provides outreach to the public about olfaction (smell),gustation (taste) and chemesthesis.
