title: Longitudinal Changes in Familiarity, Free and Cued Odor Identification, and Edibility Judgments for Odors in Aging Individuals.
abstract: This longitudinal study investigated changes in olfaction as assessed by a set of tasks requiring different aspects of semantic information in normal aging individuals. Using 16 odorous items from a standardized olfactory test, the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test, 107 middle aged and older adults were assessed up to three times over a period of 6.5 years, requesting them to rate familiarity and edibility for each odorous item before identifying it with or without presenting verbal cues. Using linear mixed models, the longitudinal analyses revealed significant correlations between all olfactory measures. Furthermore, we found an almost parallel age-related decline in all olfactory tasks, although free identification performance indicated a trend toward faster decline with age. Women showed less decline compared with men, in particular for edibility judgments. The results corroborate earlier cross-sectional findings showing significant correlations between the olfactory tasks. In the present study of healthy middle-aged and older adults, we found a parallel longitudinal decline across different tests of olfaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, Kavli Centre for Aging and Dementia Research, Haraldsplass Hospital, Bergen, Norway, Department for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway, eike.wehling@psybp.uib.no.
authors.forename: Eike I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Wehling
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, K. G. Jebsen Centre for Research on Neuropsychiatric Disorders, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Astri J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lundervold
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Umeå, Sweden and.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nordin
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Statistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University Medical Center, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wollschlaeger
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: aging; edibility; familiarity; free and cued odor identification; longitudinal