Effect of aging on hedonic appreciation of pleasant and unpleasant odors.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23637821.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0061376 and PMC identifier 3634785.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Does hedonic appreciation evolve differently for pleasant odors and unpleasant odors during normal aging? To answer this question we combined psychophysics and electro-encephalographic recordings in young and old adults. A first study showed that pleasant odorants (but not unpleasant ones) were rated as less pleasant by old adults. A second study validated this decrease in hedonic appreciation for agreeable odors and further showed that smelling these odorants decreased beta event-related synchronization in aged participants. In conclusion, the study offers new insights into the evolution of odor hedonic perception during normal aging, highlighting for the first time a change in processing pleasant odors.
Medical subject headings
- Odorants
- Olfactory Perception