Human sense of smell as good as animal's

How sensitive is the human sense of smell? You'd say it's good, but not superior to that of animals? American research has discredited the common belief that human sense of smell is inferior to that of animals. The experiment and its results were published in the journal Nature Neuroscience . Participants were instructed to follow a scent with their noses close to the ground, just as dogs do. The results were surprising. The humans fared as well as their canine friends. People sniff like dogs Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, created a scent trail along a grassy path, using, among other things, chocolate fat. They then asked 32 people to find the 10-meter-long trail and follow it to its end. Participants were told to rely solely on their sense of smell, so they covered their eyes and ears and wore thick gloves. Practice makes perfect Two-thirds of the subjects successfully found and followed the scent trails. Although humans were slower than dogs, their accuracy improved with each subsequent attempt. It turns out that the human sense of smell is more powerful than previously thought. With training, humans are able to accomplish tasks that were previously the domain of animals. Other tests have shown that humans need both nostrils to detect odors. Considering the sense of smell in a broader perspective Although olfaction is less important in humans than in animals, it is a highly developed sense. Dr. Peter Brennan of the University of Bristol argues that newborns use scent to locate their mothers. Now, adults have been shown to possess a similar ability. According to Brennan, this opens the door to unexplored areas of the sense of smell. Furthermore, he suggests that this could be used to study the extent to which blind people rely on smell to navigate their environment.