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Chem. Senses 28: 423-432, 2003
© Oxford University Press 2003

The Prevalence of Androstenone Anosmia

Elizabeth A. Bremner1,2, Joel D. Mainland1, Rehan M. Khan1 and Noam Sobel1,2

1 Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA 2 Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Noam Sobel, 3210 Tolman Hall, MC 1650, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. e-mail: nsobel{at}socrates.berkeley.edu

It has been estimated that ~30% of the population is unable to detect the odor of androstenone. These estimates, however, were made using tests and criteria optimized for identifying detection. Such criteria favor Type II over Type I errors—that is, they are excellent at identifying true detectors at the cost of erroneously labeling some detectors as non-detectors. Because these criteria were used to identify non-detectors, it is possible that the rate of non-detection may have been overestimated. To test this we screened 55 subjects for non-detection employing previously used methods. This screen yielded nine putative non-detectors, a 16.3% putative non-detection rate. We then retested these putative non-detectors using a forced choice (yes–no) paradigm to obtain a precise measure of their sensitivity. We found that this group of putative non-detectors was significantly above chance at detecting androstenone (P < 0.001), despite very low self-confidence in their performance. Based on the results of the signal detection analysis in this sample, we estimate the rate of actual androstenone non-detection in young healthy adults is between 1.8 and 5.96%, which is significantly lower than previously estimated. This finding is significant considering the implications of specific anosmias on the understanding of odor discrimination.

Key words: androstenone, odor detection, specific anosmia


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