Humans and Mice Express Similar Olfactory Preferences

Abstract

In humans, the pleasantness of odors is a major contributor to social relationships and food intake. Smells evoke attraction and repulsion responses, reflecting the hedonic value of the odorant. While olfactory preferences are known to be strongly modulated by experience and learning, it has been recently suggested that, in humans, the pleasantness of odors may be partly explained by the physicochemical properties of the odorant molecules themselves. If odor hedonic value is indeed predetermined by odorant structure, then it could be hypothesized that other species will show similar odor preferences to humans. Combining behavioral and psychophysical approaches, we here show that odorants rated as pleasant by humans were also those which, behaviorally, mice investigated longer and human subjects sniffed longer, thereby revealing for the first time a component of olfactory hedonic perception conserved across species. Consistent with this, we further show that odor pleasantness rating in humans and investigation time in mice were both correlated with the physicochemical properties of the molecules, suggesting that olfactory preferences are indeed partly engraved in the physicochemical structure of the odorant. That odor preferences are shared between mammal species and are guided by physicochemical features of odorant stimuli strengthens the view that odor preference is partially predetermined. These findings open up new perspectives for the study of the neural mechanisms of hedonic perception.

A case of hedonic perception of foreigners towards Chinese culture-specific odors from scent marketing perspective

“…The first theory is that once we are born, we are programmed to like or dislike a particular smell. Mandairon et al (2009) supporting this theory found that mammal species (humans and mice) partake same odor liking, further pointing out that these likings are determined by physicochemical features of odorant stimuli. The second theory states that our experience predetermines how we perceive a particular scent.…”

Global Features of Neural Activity in the Olfactory System Form a Parallel Code That Predicts Olfactory Behavior and Perception

“…Correspondingly, mouse investigation time and the time mice choose to spend near an odor was longer for food odors such as peanut butter and shorter for odors considered repellent by humans such as Hexanal (Kobayakawa et al, 2007). Furthermore, directly measuring mouse odor preferences by odor investigation time, revealed a moderate but significant correlation between human and mouse odor preferences that extended beyond food odors alone (Mandairon et al, 2009). We therefore compared the human pleasantness estimates to PC1 of mouse neuronal response (dataset 10, 52 neurons, 63 odorants), and obtained a correlation of r ϭ 0.7 ( p Ͻ 5 ϫ 10 Ϫ4 ).…”

“…Thus, we conclude that PC1 predicted odor preferences not only in Drosophila but also in humans. Furthermore, assuming correlation between rodent and human odor preferences (Mandairon et al, 2009), PC1 predicted odor preferences in mice and rats as well.…”

Serine/threonine‐protein phosphatase 1 α levels are paralleling olfactory memory formation in the CD1 mouse

“…Even in humans olfaction has an important impact on social behaviors [1]. Recent findings suggest similar olfactory preferences in humans and mice, revealing a component of olfactory hedonic perception conserved across species [2].…”