title: Superior orthonasal but not retronasal olfactory skills in congenital blindness.
abstract: Sight is undoubtedly important for finding and appreciating food, and cooking. Blind individuals are strongly impaired in finding food, limiting the variety of flavours they are exposed to. We have shown before that compared to sighted controls, congenitally blind individuals have enhanced olfactory but reduced taste perception. In this study we tested the hypothesis that congenitally blind subjects have enhanced orthonasal but not retronasal olfactory skills. Twelve congenitally blind and 14 sighted control subjects, matched in age, gender and body mass index, were asked to identify odours using grocery-available food powders. Results showed that blind subjects were significantly faster and tended to be better at identifying odours presented orthonasally. This was not the case when odorants were presented retronasally. We also found a significant group x route interaction, showing that although both groups performed better for retronasally compared to orthonasally presented odours, this gain was less pronounced for blind subjects. Finally, our data revealed that blind subjects were more familiar with the orthonasal odorants and used the retronasal odorants less often for cooking than their sighted counterparts. These results confirm that orthonasal but not retronasal olfactory perception is enhanced in congenital blindness, a result that is concordant with the reduced food variety exposure in this group.
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lea
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gagnon
authors.affiliation: Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Abd Rahman Alaoui
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ismaili
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Laboratory of Neuropsychiatry, Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maurice
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ptito
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kupers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000151:congenital* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009055:Mouth / Q000503:physiopathology; D009296:Nasal Cavity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009812:Odorants; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D055697:Taste Perception / Q000502:physiology
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