Diversity in children's everyday olfactory environment may affect the development of their olfactory abilities and odor awareness. To test this, we collected data on olfactory abilities using the Sniffin' Sticks and odor awareness with Children's Olfactory Behaviors in Everyday Life Questionnaire in 153 preschool children and retested them one and a half year later. Parents completed an inventory on children's exposure to a variety of odors and on their own odor awareness using the Odor Awareness Scale. We controlled for the effects of age and verbal fluency on the children's performance. We found that the children's odor identification and discrimination scores differed as a function of parental odor awareness. Although these effects were rather small, they were commensurate in size with those of gender and age. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to present evidence that diversity in children's olfactory environment affects variation in their olfactory abilities and odor awareness. We suggest that future studies consider the long-term impact of perceptual learning out of the laboratory and its consequences for olfactory development.

• MeSH
• Analysis of Variance MeSH
• Olfactory Perception * MeSH
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Odorants MeSH
• Child, Preschool MeSH
• Parents MeSH
• Environment * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Child MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Child, Preschool MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Although individuals categorize odors according to their pleasantness, experience may also influence odor perception-a phenomenon that partially explains why different populations perceive odors differently. Italy, which comprises 20 regions, is characterized by very different cultures. In the present study, we investigated for the first time how Italian regional differences can affect odor perception. 254 healthy volunteers coming from northern, central, southern Italy, and Sicily, one of the two major Italian islands, were recruited in Padua, Rome, Naples, and Syracuse, respectively. Olfactory function was tested with Sniffin' Sticks identification subtest. Subjects who had a score in the range within the mean identification value ± 1 SD, in accordance with the age classes identified in the literature, were asked to judge the odor pleasantness of 20 substances. The hedonic tone of the odorants was categorized as pleasant, neutral, unpleasant, and very unpleasant. Some odorants were appreciated more in northern Italy than in the other parts of the country, whereas others were appreciated more in the south and in Sicily than in the north. Unpleasant odorants were judged less unpleasant in central Italy. Some odorants such as strawberry and vanilla were perceived similarly in all the regional areas. Our study indicates that in Italy, hedonic perception of odorants differs probably in relation with genetic, cultural, and environmental factors. Further investigation is needed to delve deeper into the factors that influence the quality odor perception amongst humans.

• Keywords
• Hedonism, Italy, Odors, Regional areas, Smell,
• MeSH
• Smell physiology   MeSH
• Olfactory Perception * MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Trigeminal Ganglion MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Statistics, Nonparametric MeSH
• Odorants * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Italy MeSH
• Sicily MeSH