title: Measuring smells.
abstract: Olfaction consists of a set of transforms from a physical space of odorant molecules, through a neural space of information processing, and into a perceptual space of smell. Elucidating the rules governing these transforms depends on establishing valid metrics for each of the three spaces. Here we first briefly review the perceptual and neural spaces, and then concentrate on the physical space of odorant molecules. We argue that the lack of an agreed-upon odor metric poses a significant obstacle toward understanding the neurobiology of olfaction, and suggest two alternative odor metrics as possible solutions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. rhaddad@weizmann.ac.il
authors.forename: Rafi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.forename: Hadas
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lapid
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harel
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sobel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*