Title |
Molecular Vibration-Sensing Component in Human Olfaction
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, January 2013
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0055780 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Simon Gane, Dimitris Georganakis, Klio Maniati, Manolis Vamvakias, Nikitas Ragoussis, Efthimios M. C. Skoulakis, Luca Turin |
Abstract |
Whether olfaction recognizes odorants by their shape, their molecular vibrations, or both remains an open and controversial question. A convenient way to address it is to test for odor character differences between deuterated and undeuterated odorant isotopomers, since these have identical ground-state conformations but different vibrational modes. In a previous paper (Franco et al. (2011) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:9, 3797-802) we showed that fruit flies can recognize the presence of deuterium in odorants by a vibrational mechanism. Here we address the question of whether humans too can distinguish deuterated and undeuterated odorants. A previous report (Keller and Vosshall (2004) Nat Neurosci 7:4, 337-8) indicated that naive subjects are incapable of distinguishing acetophenone and d-8 acetophenone. Here we confirm and extend those results to trained subjects and gas-chromatography [GC]-pure odorants. However, we also show that subjects easily distinguish deuterated and undeuterated musk odorants purified to GC-pure standard. These results are consistent with a vibrational component in human olfaction. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 10 | 18% |
United Kingdom | 10 | 18% |
Canada | 4 | 7% |
Denmark | 2 | 4% |
Ireland | 1 | 2% |
Spain | 1 | 2% |
Norway | 1 | 2% |
Argentina | 1 | 2% |
Australia | 1 | 2% |
Other | 3 | 5% |
Unknown | 23 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 41 | 72% |
Scientists | 14 | 25% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 1 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 5 | 2% |
Germany | 4 | 2% |
United Kingdom | 4 | 2% |
France | 3 | 1% |
Italy | 1 | <1% |
Brazil | 1 | <1% |
Portugal | 1 | <1% |
Denmark | 1 | <1% |
Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
Other | 2 | <1% |
Unknown | 185 | 89% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Researcher | 43 | 21% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 35 | 17% |
Student > Bachelor | 35 | 17% |
Student > Master | 20 | 10% |
Other | 16 | 8% |
Other | 42 | 20% |
Unknown | 17 | 8% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 56 | 27% |
Chemistry | 43 | 21% |
Physics and Astronomy | 17 | 8% |
Neuroscience | 14 | 7% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 13 | 6% |
Other | 45 | 22% |
Unknown | 20 | 10% |