For millennia, the sense of smell has been widely undervalued — ranked far below vision by the likes of Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud. In 2021, a survey in the journal Brain Sciences found that people consistently ranked smell below vision and hearing — and even below commercial products. One quarter of college students surveyed said they’d prefer to give up their sense of smell than their smartphones.

But modern research suggests that smell, also known as olfaction, is less dispensable than we might think. In recent decades, we’ve gained a greater understanding of just how much humans rely on the sense of smell — for everything from social communication to the detection of environmental hazards. Researchers even believe that changes in patients’ sense of smell could eventually be used to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases.

As the science of smell continues to progress, it’s becoming increasingly clear how much we stand to gain by focusing on it.

  • girlfreddyOP
    17·
    19 days ago

    I lost my sense of taste and smell 20+ yrs ago (didn’t really realize it was gone until one morning I opened all the windows in the house, to cool it off, and my husband screamed at me for it. Seems a skunk had let loose outside and the smell was overpowering.)

    Mostly used to it now, but I do eat a lot more spicy foods than before, just to ‘feel’ something other than bland blah on my tongue.