Accounting for Subjectivity in Experimental Research on Human Olfaction.
Chemical senses January 1, 2021 Marylou Mantel, Jean-Michel Roy, Moustafa Bensafi 9 citations
Olfaction exhibits large differences in perception between individuals, yet modern research has largely ignored its subjective dimension, mirroring a broader neglect of consciousness in experimental psychology. With renewed interest in the neural bases of consciousness, methods have been proposed to incorporate subjectivity into experimental protocols. This paper argues that adapting such methods to olfaction will enable rigorous collection of subjective reports and presents several ways to do so. This approach will improve understanding of diversity in odor perception and its underlying neural mechanisms.