Chemical Senses

Millions of people in the United States experience a reduced or distorted ability to smell or taste.

Mechanisms of olfactory training (OT) in older adults require a more thorough investigation, considering its potential beneficial effects in age-related olfactory, cognitive, and affective decline. To address this question, we examined the role of OT odor hedonics in 128 participants aged between 50 and 85 years (M = 68.2 ± 7.4; 105 women and 23 men). Additionally, we explored the role of physical activity in olfactory function, depression scores, and verbal fluency.

Taste buds, the end organs of taste, consist of a diverse population of sensory cells that is constantly renewed. Cell differentiation begins with Type IV basal cells, which are ovoid elements located inside the taste bud near its base. These cells are post-mitotic precursors that give rise to all other cell types, including glial-like cells (Type I cells) and chemoreceptors (Type II and Type III cells).

Shahryar Rajai Firouzabadi, Ida Mohammadi, Mohammadreza Alinejadfard, Mohammad Yazdan Panah, Saeed Vaheb, Vahid Shaygannejad, Omid Mirmosayyeb, Gustatory Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Chemical Senses, 2025;, bjae046, https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjae046 Close You do not currently have access to this article.

Sweeteners are used in the food industry to provide sweetness similar to sugar and to decrease the caloric intake and risks associated with obesity. However, some sweeteners are characterised by bitter, metallic and other off-tastes. Sensory and cellular studies have demonstrated synergies between sweetener blends, which are responsible for enhancing sweetness.

Transient or persistent hypo-anosmia is common in SARS‑CoV‑2 infection but olfactory pathway late-term morphometric changes are still under investigation. We evaluated late olfactory bulb (OB) imaging changes and their correlates with the olfactory function in otherwise neurologically asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

The olfactory nerve, also known as cranial nerve I, is known to have exclusive ipsilateral projections to primary olfactory cortical structures. However, the lateralization of olfactory processes is known to depend on the task and nature of stimuli. It still remains unclear whether olfactory system projections in humans also correspond to functional pathways during olfactory tasks without any trigeminal, perceptual or cognitive-motor components.

Studies on taste bud cells and brain stem relay nuclei suggest that alternative pathways convey information regarding different taste qualities.

The Social Odor Scale (SOS) is a 12-item questionnaire initially developed and validated in Italian and German to investigate self-reported awareness of social odors, which are odors emanating from the human body that convey diverse information and evoke various emotional responses. The scale includes a total score and three subscales representing social odors in the respective categories: romantic partner, familiar, and strangers.

Self-reported measures emerge as potential indicators for early detection of dementia and mortality. We investigated the predictive value of different self-reported measures, including subjective cognitive decline (SCD), subjective olfactory impairment (SOI), subjective taste impairment (STI) and self-reported poor health (SPH), in order to determine the risk of progressing to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) dementia, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) dementia or any-other-cause dementia.