Humans can track scents?

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It's amazing what you can do if you actually try...apparently humans can track a scent:
If the results are surprising, that might be because no one ever tried putting a bunch of college undergraduates in a field wearing blindfolds and sound-muffling headphones, then having them crawl in the grass after a scent.

When researchers at the University of California, Berkeley did try that, they found that most of the students could follow a 30-foot trail of chocolate perfume; they even changed direction precisely where the invisible path took a turn. What's more, the subjects were able to smell in stereo: When researchers blocked their ability to smell independently with each nostril, the students' scent-tracking accuracy dropped off drastically.

OK, this is interesting, but the article doesn't say how strong the scent was, or how humans performed compared to bloodhounds or other animals with a keen sense of smell.

One thing I noticed when my wife was pregnant was that her sense of smell became very sensitive, especially early in the pregnancy. It would be interesting to see if pregnant women did better on the tracking task. The human subjects committee would probably give you a hard time though.


Comments

eula_w said…
More scents with human pheromones are now available on the market and the research into whether pheromones play a role in getting men and women together, and keeping them attracted to one another, are advancing all of the time.
6:35 AM, October 04, 2012
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