FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SPECIFIC ANOSMIA

敏感度和反应能力的个体差异是惊人的 嗅觉的化学感觉形式的特征。特定的 嗅觉缺失描述的是对特定类别的密切相关的选择性缺陷。 在其他方面正常的个体中的相关化合物 嗅觉敏锐度。特异型嗅觉缺乏症已被证明是一种有前途的工具 嗅觉功能的遗传基础的研究，以及 遗传学与环境和发展影响的相互作用。在……里面 尽管关于这种潜在的重要化学感觉的文献越来越多 这一现象，很少有研究考察特定人的反应 对高于阈值的刺激或在物理复杂的混合体中的刺激缺乏嗅觉。 这种心理物理发现的扩展是必要的，如果 特定的嗅觉丧失将被证明与现实生活中的嗅觉有关 人类的功能，因为大多数气味引导行为都涉及刺激 超过阈值或与化学混合物混合。许多已知的化合物 在嗅觉敏感度上表现出强烈的个体差异(因此 是否为特定嗅觉丧失的候选病例或已有记录的病例 可能会影响食物的味道感知，从而影响食物的选择和食物 排斥，并最终在化学物质的相互作用中发挥作用 感觉与营养状况和生活质量有关。 这项拟议的研究将探索 有特殊嗅觉障碍的个体要有一些重要的香气和味道 关于气味强度和质量感觉的食品成分 在混合体中。方法将包括感知的心理物理测量 可感知的气味混合物和多维气味混合物中的强度 混合程度较高(即感知程度较低)的气味相似性 可分割的)刺激。将特别强调审查 除TO以外的其他混合物组分强度的判断 其中人是无嗅觉的，因为混合物等二级效应 气味成分之间的抑制作用也可能在一种或多种混合物中发生变化 零部件在感官上的影响会减少。拟议的研究将 对受控项目中的这些变化提供量化评估 心理物理学研究，作为弥合 特异型嗅觉障碍和日常嗅觉障碍的阈值研究 易挥发的味道。

Individual differences in sensitivity and responsiveness are striking characteristics of the chemosensory modality of olfaction. Specific anosmia describes a selective deficit to a specific class of closely related chemical compounds among individuals with otherwise normal olfactory acuity. Specific anosmia has proven to be a promising tool for the study of the genetic basis of olfactory function, as well as the interplay of genetics with environmental and developmental influences. In spite of a growing literature on this potentially important chemosensory phenomenon, few if any studies have examined the responses of specific anosmics to stimuli above threshold or in physically complex mixtures. Such extension of psychophysical findings is necessary if the phenomenon of specific anosmia is to be shown to have relevance to real-life olfactory functioning of humans since most odor-guided behaviors involve stimulation above threshold or with chemical mixtures. Many compounds which are known to show strong individual differences in olfactory sensitivity (and thus are either candidates for or already-documented cases of specific anosmia may influence food flavor perception and thus food choice and food rejection and ultimately play a part in the interaction of the chemical senses with nutritional status and the quality of life. The proposed research will explore the psychophysical responses of individuals with specific anosmia to a number of important aroma and flavor components of foods, with respect to odor intensity and quality perceptions in mixtures. Methods will include psychophysical scaling of perceived intensity in perceptually separable odor mixtures and multidimensional scaling of odor similarities among more blended (i.e. less perceptually divisible) stimuli. Special emphasis will be placed on examining judgements of intensity of other mixture components in addition to those to which the person is anosmic, since second order effects such as mixture inhibition among odor components may also change when one or more mixture components are reduced in their sensory impact. The proposed research will provide a quantitative assessment of these changes in controlled psychophysical studies, as a first step toward bridging the gap between threshold studies of specific anosmia and everyday perception of odors and volatile flavors.