10 Fundamental categories of olfactive perception.
Determined for the first time a range of basic odor on which you can define the perceptive space of what is perhaps the most archaic sense but also more elusive. The vast majority of these odors have a close relationship with the attractiveness, tied evolutionary importance of having a sense of smell that helps to distinguish the right foods
Year 2013, three fellow researchers
Jason B. Castro from Bates College a Lewinstone
Chakra Chennubhotla from University of Pittsburgh
Arvind Ramanathan from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Illustrate their study on categories of fundamental odors, that can define our “olfactive space”
Castro and friends started from the Atlas of odor character profiles from Andrew Dravnieks, who mapped the connections from organoleptic qualities and some physicochemical characteristics of various compounds.
This data group is treated with some mathematical \ statistical analysis is added to simplify the olfactive informations grouping them into consistent categories.
Researchers have thus identified ten basic odors:
fragrant
woody - resinous
fruity (not citrus)
chemical
mint / peppermint
popcorn
lemon
and two types of nauseating odors:pungent
decomposed.
Although the names attributed to the various fundamental odors are in fact only an aid to intuition, the researchers observe, it is noteworthy that most of the odors identified have a close correlation with the potential palatability or desirability of the substance, and which are therefore compatible with a broader ecological perspective of the olfactory function in which the importance of the chemosensitivity in directing towards possible safe food and moving away from potentially toxic ones is emphasized.
Castro and his colleagues also warn that this classification constitutes a first approximation to the definition of the "axes" of perceptual space, which will be confirmed by further expanding the database on which it was developed.