Chem. Senses 25: 1-8,
2000
© Oxford University Press 2000
Sniffing Longer rather than Stronger to Maintain Olfactory Detection Threshold
1 Program in Neuroscience and Departments of 2 Psychology, 3 Symbolic Systems and 4 Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Noam Sobel, Jordan Hall Bldg 420, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. e-mail: nsobel{at}leland.stanford.edu
Air flow-rate is usually higher in one nostril in comparison to the other. Also, within bounds, higher nasal flow-rate improves odorant detection. It follows from the above that odorant detection should be better in the nostril with higher flow-rate in comparison to the nostril with lower flow-rate. Paradoxically, previous research has shown that odorant detection thresholds are equal for the high and low flow-rate nostrils. Here we resolve this apparent paradox by showing that when detecting through the nostril with lower air flow-rate, humans sniffed longer than when detecting through the nostril with higher air flow-rate, thus equalizing performance between the nostrils. When this compensatory mechanism was blocked, a pronounced advantage in odorant detection was seen for the nostril with higher air flow-rate over the nostril with lower air flow-rate. Finally, we show that normal birhinal sniff duration may enable only one nostril to reach optimal threshold. This finding implies that during each sniff, each nostril conveys to the brain a slightly different image of the olfactory world. It remains to be shown how the brain combines these images into a single olfactory percept.
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