title: Learning to smell: repeated exposure increases sensitivity to androstenone, a major component of boar taint.
abstract: This study aimed to assess whether repeated exposure affects subjects' ability to detect androstenone. Olfactory acuity of 77 female and 44 male subjects (age 37.5 ± 11.7 years) was assessed three times during six weeks. Replicate triangle tests using various dilutions of androstenone (0.5, 5.0, and 50.0 μg/g) on filter paper smell strips were applied. Subjects were either assigned to a test group (TRAIN) using androstenone for daily training, or to a control group (CONTR) using a placebo. For the low, the intermediate, and the high level of androstenone presented, detection rate increased from 14.1 to 30.6%, 40.5 to 62.8%, and 65.3 to 78.5% respectively within 6 weeks from the initial assessment. Results suggest that mere exposure during repeated olfactory testing increased subjects' ability to correctly discriminate androstenone. The olfactory improvement was, however, more pronounced in the TRAIN group. Androstenone detection appears to be associated with its individual appreciation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, University of Göttingen, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany. daniel.moerlein@agr.uni-goettingen.de
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mörlein
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meier-Dinkel
authors.forename: Jasmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moritz
authors.forename: Ahmad Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Knorr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000736:Androstenes; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D012903:Smell; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000736:Androstenes; C000214:androst-16-en-3-one