I have known a couple of people in my time who had little or no sense of smell. For one of them -- in about the only instance of my life that my technical psychological training turned out to be actually, practically useful -- I was cooking dinner for him one night and decided to sprinkle a bit of cayenne on the chicken I was baking (recalling from perception class that spicy flavors are transmitted by the trigeminal cranial nerve, bypassing the olfactory system). He reported that it was the best food he had eaten in years. The other one once served a Spanish wine at dinner which she described as being "salty, briney." When the various guests tasted it, the most obvious impression was a blast of eucalyptus-like resin of which the hostess was completely unaware. When I pinched my nose and tried the wine, indeed there was a salty taste to it that one could not really detect when one could also smell the resin.
Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== Frantz, Sue wrote: > > > 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 > <mailto: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) > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
