A new study has found that humans sense of smell Can recognize odors within a fraction of a second. This study refutes the common belief that we understand dirt is slow. The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior and was conducted by researchers from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ohio State University.

The study states that humans can distinguish between different sequences of odors, distinguishing a sequence of “A” before “B” from a sequence of “A” before “B” when smelling odorant A and odorant A. The interval between B is only 60 milliseconds.

“We were surprised to find that participants could distinguish between two odorants presented in one order and the opposite order when there was a latency,” Dr. Wen Zhou, lead author of the study and a principal investigator at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said in an email. Can present in.” The gap between odors was as little as 60 milliseconds.” Latency refers to the time between each odor being delivered. “For comparison, the blink period is about 180 milliseconds,” Zhou said.

“Our device could be used for therapeutic purposes, such as olfactory training for patients with olfactory loss,” Zhou said. More broadly, our findings can guide the design and development of electronic nose and olfactory virtual reality systems, which could have important clinical benefits.

According to a CNN report, researchers have developed a sniffing device that consists of check valves which are devices that allow odors to flow in one direction and Teflon tubes that reach the human nose with an accuracy of 18 milliseconds. Capable of transmitting odor.

Researchers asked 229 adults in China to wear the device and smell various odor blends; With a single sniff, two odors are revealed in quick succession. The scents included apple-like scent, sweet floral scent, lemon-like scent, and onion-like scent. The latency between the two odors was carefully manipulated.

The researchers analyzed whether participants could distinguish between two odors presented in a sequence and contrasting odors at different latencies. Zhou said they found that overall, the two odors became “perceptually discriminative” when presented in a sequence and by contrast when the two odors were only 60 milliseconds apart within the same sniff.

The researchers said they only used four odors and that it would be beneficial to test a wider variety to understand whether the human sense of smell is more sensitive to the dynamics or compounds of certain odors.

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