ReviewScience (New York, N.Y.)2017
Poor human olfaction is a 19th-century myth.
Review in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 158 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
158 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 490 citations in OpenAlex.
- A cognitive nose? Evaluating working memory benchmarks in the olfactory domain.Chemical senses · 2025Pooled it
- The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra- and interspecific chemical communication of emotions.Brain and behavior · 2020Pooled it
- Titrating the Smell of Fear: Initial Evidence for Dose-Invariant Behavioral, Physiological, and Neural Responses.Psychological science · 2021Trial
- Pleasant olfactory cues can reduce cigarette craving.Journal of abnormal psychology · 2019Trial
- Odor Thresholds in Flavor Science: A Data-Driven Review From Mechanisms to Applications.Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety · 2026Review
- Olfactory dysfunction in obesity and type 2 diabetes: mechanistic insights from preclinical models.Diabetologia · 2026Review
- The Wire Is Not the Territory: Understanding Representational Drift in Olfaction With Dynamical Systems Theory.Topics in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Investigating the flavor contributions of sulfur compounds in soy sauce flavor Baijiu using flavoromics and machine learning.NPJ science of food · 2026Article
- Human pairs show collective benefit in olfactory perception despite individual differences and verbal limits.iScience · 2026Article
- The Olfactory Origins of Affective Processing: A Neurobiological Synthesis Through the Walla Emotion Model.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Breastfeeding, bonding, and olfaction: unlocking the potential of mother-infant odour exchange.EBioMedicine · 2026Review
- Recent Advancements in Bionic Olfactory Biosensors: Components, Applications, and Future Perspectives.Chem & bio engineering · 2025Review
- Aroma Formation, Release, and Perception in Aquatic Products Processing: A Review.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Why dogs prefer zoomies to zoom and what it tells us about the importance of in-person meetings for learning and memory.Cognitive processing · 2025Article
- Odors as cognitive constructs: history of odor classification and attempts to map odor percepts to physical and chemical parameters.Chemical senses · 2025Review
- Stimulating the Human Olfactory Bulb to Evoke Smell Perception: A Case Report from Awake Brain Surgery.ORL; journal for oto-rhino-laryngology and its related specialties · 2025Article
- Past, Present, and Future of Human Chemical Communication Research.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Review
- The mysterious sense of smell: evolution, historical perspectives, and neurological disorders.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Can dogs sniff out cancer? Exploring the role of medical detection dogs in Hong Kong's early diagnosis strategies.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Development of an rpS6-Based Ex Vivo Assay for the Analysis of Neuronal Activity in Mouse and Human Olfactory Systems.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
98 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
It is commonly believed that humans have a poor sense of smell compared to other mammalian species. However, this idea derives not from empirical studies of human olfaction but from a famous 19th-century anatomist's hypothesis that the evolution of human free will required a reduction in the proportional size of the brain's olfactory bulb. The human olfactory bulb is actually quite large in absolute terms and contains a similar number of neurons to that of other mammals. Moreover, humans have excellent olfactory abilities. We can detect and discriminate an extraordinary range of odors, we are more sensitive than rodents and dogs for some odors, we are capable of tracking odor trails, and our behavioral and affective states are influenced by our sense of smell.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.