title: The prevalence of androstenone anosmia.
abstract: It has been estimated that approximately 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.
authors.affiliation: Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Bremner
authors.forename: Joel D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mainland
authors.forename: Rehan M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sobel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000738:Androsterone / Q000032:analysis / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012903:Smell / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000738:Androsterone