I had a student who also lost her sense of smell following a head injury. In addition to choosing what to eat based on temperature and texture, she said that she spent more time doing laundry, a concern expressed by someone else in the article. (She couldn't apply the sniff test to determine if something could be worn again.)
One summer, about 10 years ago, I was in my office on campus after the custodial staff had just cleaned the carpets using bleach. I had been there 4 hours or so when I left for lunch. When I got in my truck I suddenly smelled something dead. It was to my left, so I figured that an animal had somehow crawled into my truck door and died. (Don't ask me how that could happen, but I didn't have a lot of other hypotheses.) Within 5 minutes the smell was gone. (The dead animal, just as mysteriously, had apparently fallen out of my door as I drove down the highway.) I was back on campus an hour later, this time in the library, talking with a colleague. Suddenly, there was the dead-animal smell again, again to my left. Now I think it's me - that I really need a shower... because I had apparently, again mysteriously, unknowingly smeared a dead animal on the left side of my body. (I also learned that it's difficult to ask a colleague, "Do I smell like a dead animal?") When the smell disappeared 10 minutes later, I decided that I was experiencing an olfactory hallucination. The next morning when I woke up, I again had the dead-animal smell off to my left, but it was much fainter than the day before. After a few minutes it was gone, never to reappear. I decided that the smell of the bleach had an undesirable effect on my olfactory receptors. But the experience gave me a whole new appreciation for the importance of our senses in general and smell in particular. Sue -- Sue Frantz <http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/> Highline Community College Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA 206.878.3710 x3404 sfra...@highline.edu Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director Project Syllabus <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> APA's p...@cc Committee <http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/ptatcchome.html> From: Helweg-Larsen, Marie [mailto:helw...@dickinson.edu] Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 11:40 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] anosmia Here it is: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/taking-scent-for-granted.html **************************************************** Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Department Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Kaufman 168, Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 17013, office (717) 245-1562, fax (717) 245-1971 http://www.dickinson.edu/departments/psych/helwegm **************************************************** --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
