Solla, A. L. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2022

Masking effects on Iso-valeric Acid Recognition by Sub-threshold Odor Mixture

Masking unpleasant odors with high levels of pleasant-smelling odorants is an ancient practice that has evolved into many enterprises, from perfumery to consumer products. However, effective odor masking turns out to be idiosyncratic and impermanent. Here, we used Sniff Olfactometry (SO)(Rochelle et al., 2017; Wyckoff & Acree, 2017) to investigate the psychophysics of masking during 70ms-stimulations with mixtures of the mal-odorant iso-valeric Acid (IVA) and different masking agents. IVA is a component of human sweat that can dominate its smell, and is often described in unpleasant terms, e.g., "gym locker", "smelly feet", "dirty clothes", etc. Conventionally, high concentrations of positive smelling odorants are used to reduce the unpleasantness of IVA in clothing or environments contaminated with IVA. To investigate the masking effects of sub-threshold levels of masking agents (neohivernal, geraniol, florhydral, decanal, iso-longifolanone, methyl iso-eugenol, and s-limonene) on IVA, we used SO to measure the probability of recognizing IVA after 70ms stimulations with headspaces containing mixtures of super-threshold concentrations of IVA and sub-threshold concentrations of IVA-suppressors for 9 subjects. On average, the single masking agent could decrease IVA-recognition probability by 14% to 72%, and a subthreshold odor mixture consisting of 6 masking agents decreased IVA recognition by 96%.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2022

Sniff Olfactometer (SO) Protocols

Most olfactometers used to study human olfaction have stimulus durations of more than 1 second and often lasting minutes(Dravnieks 1975; Leland et al. 2001; Schmidt and Cain 2010). During long stimulations, olfactory receptor responses and their resulting behaviors are modulated by adaptation and habituation to the stimulus(Pellegrino et al. 2017; Rankin 2009; Wilson and Linster 2008). For example, EOG results from the first deorphanized olfactory receptor tissue reached a maximum in [~]1 s, dropping to 1/2 maximum in the next second, and showing little signal reduction until the stimulation stopped after 6 seconds(Zhao et al. 1998). Longer stimulations can result in complete habituation; receptors still respond even though the behavior shows complete habituation (Barwich 2014). To minimize the effects of adaption and habituation on stimulus responses, the sniff olfactometer (SO) combined the precision of a blast olfactometer with the gentleness of a stream olfactometer by blasting a brief odorant puff (70ms duration) into a subjects self-imposed inhalation air stream(Rochelle 2017; Rochelle et al. 2017b; Wyckoff and Acree 2017). Here we describe SO protocols for threshold determinations of odorants in aqueous headspaces using odorant recognition probabilities associated with Log(odorant-concentrations(Rochelle et al. 2017a)). During a single trial a subject, preconditioned to associate a veridical name with a given odor (e.g., a pyrazine with "nuts" when the odor was detected and "not nuts" if it wasnt) was cued to "inhale" and 750ms later, a 15ml-70ms puff of odorant headspace was delivered into their inhalation airstream. A session consisted of 12 randomized double-blind trials of 3 different odorant concentrations. Additional sessions with different concentrations were conducted until the response probability to the samples ranged from below 0.2 to above 0.8. The robustness of the fitted function and the size of their confidence intervals depended on the difference between the concentrations of the odorants during a single session: small differences in sample concentration resulted in the data failing to fit a logistic function; larger concentration differences resulted in a better fit to the model. However, if one of the stimuli had no odorant at all i.e., a blank, the response to the blank was random.

animal behavior and cognition↗