Gender-specific Olfactory Sensitization: Hormonal and Cognitive Influences

Abstract

In one reported instance of induced olfactory sensitivity, men and women who were initially unable to smell androstenone (5-α-androst-16-en-3-one) developed that ability after repeated exposures (Wysocki et al., 1989). This phenomenon has been believed to occur only for odorants to which participants have specific anosmia and possibly specific to the particular stimulus used in that experiment. Here, we demonstrate that induced olfactory sensitivity is both a more general and more restricted effect, with only women of repro-ductive age showing marked sensitization to multiple odorants after repeated threshold testing. These findings may offer an explanation for anecdotal claims of females ’ olfactory acuity. Although gender differences have been observed within several different olfactory processes, these tend to be tasks that require higher cognitive processing such as memory for odors, odor identifi-cation and hedonic ratings (Cain, 1982; Doty et al., 1985; Gilbert et