Everyone's preference for odor is largely determined by personal experience and culture. French researchers recently discovered that humans and mice have similar olfactory preferences. They inferred that, to a certain extent, the biochemical reactions caused by odor molecules determine the innate part of the sense of smell.
Researchers at the French Scientific Research Center recently published relevant research reports in the US "First Public Library of Science" online journal. The report said that the same thing will be very different from smelling by different people. For example, the Frenchman smells savory Camembert cheese and may have a strange taste for people in other countries. However, the researchers also believe that although the sense of smell is influenced by culture and other factors, it may also be related to the objective odor molecules.
In order to prove this conjecture, the researchers prepared the same odor items, people and mice sniff one by one. People involved in the experiment were asked to rank according to the degree of odor preference; for experimental mice, researchers used their time spent in front of different items as the main measure. The results showed that people and mice have similar odor preferences, such as the odor of a substance called geraniol, and the focus of odor is "a respectful distance."
The researchers therefore believe that, to some extent, the innate part of the olfactory preference is determined by the biochemical reactions caused by the odor molecules of the objective object. They will continue to study and hope to explore the relationship between the nervous system and odor preferences.
The researchers suggest that the food processing industry, etc., will use animal sensations as one of the reference standards when developing new products.