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Don't Ignore Your Sense Of Smell? It Could Be More Than Just Coronavirus

Don't Ignore Your Sense Of Smell? It Could Be More Than Just Coronavirus
Don't Ignore Your Sense Of Smell? It Could Be More Than Just Coronavirus

Loss of smell is a prominent sign of coronavirus that helps people recognize that they are suffering from the infection. But a new study has found that it could indicate more than just Covid.

Written by Arushi Bidhuri |Updated : October 21, 2021 10:22 AM IST

Are you unable to smell your perfume? Is your shower gel missing its lavender aroma? Over the course of almost two years, people have realized that the loss of your sense of smell a condition known as anosmia is a sign of COVID-19. But a new study has found that your sense of smell is your body's most rapid warning system. Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet were able to investigate what happens in the brain when the central nervous system interprets a smell as dangerous.

Change Of Smell Does Not Just Recognize Coronavirus But Danger As Well

According to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, our and other mammals' existence depends on our ability to detect and react to the smell of a possible threat. The study suggests that negative odours associated with unpleasantness or uneasiness are processed earlier than good odour, according to the study, and cause a bodily avoidance response.

Study author Behzad Iravani, a researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet said, "The human avoidance response to unpleasant smells associated with danger has long been seen as a conscious cognitive process, but our study shows for the first time that it's unconscious and extremely rapid."

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How Does It Work?

The olfactory organ occupies around 5% of the brain and allows us to distinguish between millions of different odours. Chemicals and rotten food are related to a high number of these odours, which pose a threat to human health and life. After being inhaled through the nose, odour impulses reach the brain in 100 to 150 milliseconds. All living species rely on their ability to avoid danger and seek rewards in order to survive. The olfactory sense appears to be especially crucial in humans for identifying and reacting to potentially hazardous stimuli.

Based on the study results, lead author Johan Lundstrom, associate professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet said, "It was clear that the bulb reacts specifically and rapidly to negative smells and sends a direct signal to the motor cortex within about 300 ms. The signal causes the person to unconsciously lean back and away from the source of the smell."

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now created a way for measuring signals from the human olfactory bulb, which processes odours and provides signals to areas of the brain that control movement and avoidance behaviour for the first time. "The results suggest that our sense of smell is important to our ability to detect dangers in our vicinity, and much of this ability is more unconscious than our response to danger mediated by our senses of vision and hearing," he further added.

(inputs from agencies)