Olfactory language refers to language associated with the sense of smell. It involves the naming and categorisation of odours by humans according to each odour's perceived source or attributes. The study of olfactory language is part of the field of linguistics and is distinct from the study of semiochemical communication, which involves communication between organisms using chemical substances detected through olfaction.
Different speech communities tend to display differences in both the perception and linguistic categorisation of odours. In general, Europeans find it harder to identify odours than hunter-gatherer communities. [1] [2] [3] The ease with which odours are identified by speakers is related to the primary type of olfactory vocabulary used in their speech community. Some speech communities, including Jahai- and Thai-speaking hunter-gatherers, mostly use dedicated abstract vocabulary for referring to odour qualities, while others, such as Dutch and English speakers, mostly use concrete terms that identify the source itself. [4] [5] When presented with common odours and asked to name them, Jahai speakers are likely to use the same abstract descriptor and answer more quickly, while English and Dutch speakers tend to take longer to answer and use a more diverse range of mostly concrete descriptors, suggesting that abstract and concrete odour names are encoded differently. [3] [4] The nature of odour-colour associations also differs between speech communities based on their vocabulary. Dutch speakers who use concrete terms associate a particular odour with the colour of its source (e.g., banana odour associated with the colour yellow), while Maniq and Thai speakers who use abstract terminology do not show consistent odour-colour associations. [5]
Cross-linguistically, olfactory metaphor is traditionally thought to be the least important of all the senses, especially when compared to visual or auditory metaphors, [6] although emerging research suggests the phenomenon is more common than previously thought. [7] In English, olfactory metaphors with negative connotations are often used to describe bad character ("he's a stinker") or the detection of bad qualities ("I smell something fishy about this deal"). [6] In the Seri language, olfactory metaphor and metonymy are salient features. One example is the expression hiisax cheemt iha ("I am angry"), literally 'my.spirit stinks (Declarative)'. [7]
Different populations speaking the same language and sharing cultural traditions may still display varied perceptions of an odour, based on its prevalence and most common source in each location. For example, one study showed that French speakers in Quebec find the scent of wintergreen more pleasant and edible than speakers in France. [8] This is because the odour is commonly used in candies and sodas in North America, while in Europe it is used mainly in medicinal products. However, providing concrete names of the source of the odours caused cultural differences in responses to decrease or disappear, suggesting that providing more linguistic information about an odour tends to make its perception more salient in the mind of the smeller.
In a clinical setting, patients may undergo olfactory tests to aid in the diagnosis of mental disorders. [9] A common test involves the use of "Sniffin' Sticks", a set of marker pens imbued with different scents at varying dilutions. [10] Sniffin' Sticks are used both for diagnosis and for research into olfaction, including olfactory language. [4] Due to linguistic variation across speech communities, the Sniffin' Sticks test must be validated for each country in which medical professionals wish to use it for diagnosis. [11] Rather than using a literal translation of scent descriptors, researchers validating the test in a new country may need to change the translated descriptors to more culturally-appropriate terms for the speech community in question. For example, researchers validating the Sniffin' Sticks test for the Portuguese population changed the original translation of the grapefruit scent descriptor, toranja, to the Portuguese word for orange, laranja. [12] This is because grapefruit are not commonly eaten in Portugal, which resulted in participant familiarity falling below the benchmark of 75%. Altering lesser known descriptors such as "grapefruit" to less literal but more culturally-relevant translations increased familiarity to within the range expected for healthy populations. This validated the Sniffin' Sticks test for the Portuguese population without requiring the scents themselves to be altered.
The olfactory system, or sense of smell, is the sensory system used for smelling (olfaction). Olfaction is one of the special senses, that have directly associated specific organs. Most mammals and reptiles have a main olfactory system and an accessory olfactory system. The main olfactory system detects airborne substances, while the accessory system senses fluid-phase stimuli.
Body odor or body odour (BO) is present in all animals and its intensity can be influenced by many factors. Body odor has a strong genetic basis, but can also be strongly influenced by various factors, such as gender, diet, health, and medication. The body odor of human males plays an important role in human sexual attraction, as a powerful indicator of MHC/HLA heterozygosity. Significant evidence suggests that women are attracted to men whose body odor is different from theirs, indicating that they have immune genes that are different from their own, which may produce healthier offspring.
An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavoring, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficiently volatile for transmission via the air to the olfactory system in the upper part of the nose. As examples, various fragrant fruits have diverse aroma compounds, particularly strawberries which are commercially cultivated to have appealing aromas, and contain several hundred aroma compounds.
Androstenone (5α-androst-16-en-3-one) is a 16-androstene class steroidal pheromone. It is found in boar's saliva, celery cytoplasm, and truffle fungus. Androstenone was the first mammalian pheromone to be identified. It is found in high concentrations in the saliva of male pigs, and, when inhaled by a female pig that is in heat, results in the female assuming the mating stance. Androstenone is the active ingredient in 'Boarmate', a commercial product made by DuPont sold to pig farmers to test sows for timing of artificial insemination.
The docking theory of olfaction proposes that the smell of an odorant molecule is due to a range of weak non-covalent interactions between the odorant [a ligand] and one or more G protein-coupled odorant receptors. These include intermolecular forces, such as dipole-dipole and Van der Waals interactions, as well as hydrogen bonding. More specific proposed interactions include metal-ion, ion-ion, cation-pi and pi-stacking. Interactions can be influenced by the hydrophobic effect. Conformational changes can also have a significant impact on interactions with receptors, as ligands have been shown to interact with ligands without being in their conformation of lowest energy.
The vibration theory of smell proposes that a molecule's smell character is due to its vibrational frequency in the infrared range. This controversial theory is an alternative to the more widely accepted docking theory of olfaction, which proposes that a molecule's smell character is due to a range of weak non-covalent interactions between its protein odorant receptor, such as electrostatic and Van der Waals interactions as well as H-bonding, dipole attraction, pi-stacking, metal ion, Cation–pi interaction, and hydrophobic effects, in addition to the molecule's conformation.
Parosmia is a dysfunctional smell detection characterized by the inability of the brain to correctly identify an odor's "natural" smell. Instead, the natural odor is usually transformed into an unpleasant aroma, typically a "burned", "rotting", "fecal", or "chemical" smell. There can also be rare instances of a pleasant odor called euosmia. The condition was rare and little-researched until it became relatively more widespread since 2020 as a side effect of COVID-19.
Luca Turin is a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in bioelectronics, the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry.
Phantosmia, also called an olfactory hallucination or a phantom odor, is smelling an odor that is not actually there. This is intrinsically suspicious as the formal evaluation and detection of relatively low levels of odour particles is itself a very tricky task in air epistemology. It can occur in one nostril or both. Unpleasant phantosmia, cacosmia, is more common and is often described as smelling something that is burned, foul, spoiled, or rotten. Experiencing occasional phantom smells is normal and usually goes away on its own in time. When hallucinations of this type do not seem to go away or when they keep coming back, it can be very upsetting and can disrupt an individual's quality of life.
Pamela Dalton is a cognitive psychologist. She has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and a Masters in Public Health. Dalton is frequently quoted by the popular press as an authority on environmental odors. She has done extensive research in the fields of sick building syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity. In the past she has worked with the United States Department of Defense on nonlethal weapons development, or the enhancement of bad odors as weapons. She currently works at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
An odor or odour is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive via their sense of smell. An odor is also called a "smell" or a "scent", which can refer to either a pleasant or an unpleasant odor.
The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste.
Olfactory memory refers to the recollection of odors. Studies have found various characteristics of common memories of odor memory including persistence and high resistance to interference. Explicit memory is typically the form focused on in the studies of olfactory memory, though implicit forms of memory certainly supply distinct contributions to the understanding of odors and memories of them. Research has demonstrated that the changes to the olfactory bulb and main olfactory system following birth are extremely important and influential for maternal behavior. Mammalian olfactory cues play an important role in the coordination of the mother infant bond, and the following normal development of the offspring. Maternal breast odors are individually distinctive, and provide a basis for recognition of the mother by her offspring.
Odour is sensory stimulation of the olfactory membrane of the nose by a group of molecules. Certain body odours are connected to human sexual attraction. Humans can make use of body odour subconsciously to identify whether a potential mate will pass on favourable traits to their offspring. Body odour may provide significant cues about the genetic quality, health and reproductive success of a potential mate.
Digital scent technology is the engineering discipline dealing with olfactory representation. It is a technology to sense, transmit and receive scent-enabled digital media. The sensing part of this technology works by using olfactometers and electronic noses.
The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) is a test that is commercially available for smell identification to test the function of an individual's olfactory system.
Insect olfaction refers to the function of chemical receptors that enable insects to detect and identify volatile compounds for foraging, predator avoidance, finding mating partners and locating oviposition habitats. Thus, it is the most important sensation for insects. Most important insect behaviors must be timed perfectly which is dependent on what they smell and when they smell it. For example, olfaction is essential for locating host plants and hunting prey in many species of insects, such as the moth Deilephila elpenor and the wasp Polybia sericea, respectively.
Asifa Majid is a psychologist, linguist and cognitive scientist who is professor of language, communication and cultural cognition at the University of Oxford, UK.
Smell training or olfactory training is the act of regularly sniffing or exposing oneself to robust aromas with the intention of regaining a sense of smell. The stimulating smells used are often selected from major smell categories, such as aromatic, flowery, fruity, and resinous. Using strong scents, the patient is asked to sniff each different smell for a minimum of 20 seconds, no less than two times per day, for three to six months or more. It is used as a rehabilitative therapy to help people who have anosmia or post-viral olfactory dysfunction, a symptom of COVID-19. It was considered a promising experimental treatment in a 2017 meta-analysis.
Olfactic communication is a channel of nonverbal communication referring to the various ways people and animals communicate and engage in social interaction through their sense of smell. Our human olfactory sense is one of the most phylogenetically primitive and emotionally intimate of the five senses; the sensation of smell is thought to be the most matured and developed human sense.