Losing the sense of smell is down to many factors
Your sense of smell can be improved through training, according to a new study.
The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, also suggests if we do not use our sense of smell, we begin to lose it.
Study leader Dr Donald Wilson said smell was unique among our sense. The olfactory bulb, a structure beneath the frontal cortex that receives nerve impulses from the nose, has direct connections to areas of the brain which control emotions and cognition.
The findings suggest possible ways reverse the loss of smell due to ageing and disease.
Impairment in the sense of smell is associated with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and even normal ageing.
Dr Wilson, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University, says: "Unlike information from your eyes and ears that has gone through many connection to reach the frontal cortex, the olfactory system is just two connections away. The result is an immediate pathway from teh environment through our nose to our memory."
Wilson and Julie Chapuis, post-doctoral fellow, based their experiments on mice.
"Our findings suggest that while olfactory impairment may reflect real damage to the sensory system, in some cases it may be a 'use it or lose it' phenomenon," explains Wilson.
This opens the door for potential smell training therapies that could help restore smell function in some cases. "Odour training could help fix broken noses," he adds.
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