What is Your Smell IQ?

Your nose sits in the middle of your face unobtrusively going about its business 24/7. How much do you really know about its function?
 
By Luke Vorstermans
 
Most people pay little attention to their sense of smell. Other than our nose providing a placeholder for reading glasses, our sense of smell goes about its daily function identifying, categorizing and memorizing thousands of different odors with every breath we take.

We breathe an average of 23,040 times a day and flood our smell receptors with over 240 cubic feet of air, but rarely do we take any notice unless, of course, it’s an erotic perfume or a dead skunk.

​​Relegated to the bottom of the sensory pile, the olfactory sense is going through a revolution and emerging as the new medical frontier. Research is showing that this enigmatic sense has a powerful effect on moods, memories, taste, behavior and sexual function. Recently, health-conscious consumers have started tapping into the power smell as an easy and personal way to improve health and well being.
 
Test your knowledge about your sense of smell with these interesting true or false statements:
 
We smell with our brains.
□ True  □ False
 
Women have a stronger sense of smell then men.
□ True  □ False
 
Our smelling perception increases throughout the day.
□ True  □ False
 
Smell has strong connection to our memories.
□ True  □ False
 
Our sense of smell declines with age.
□ True  □ False
 
The seasons affect our smelling sensitivity.
□ True  □ False
 
What you taste is controlled by smell.
□ True  □ False
 
Our sense of smell is fully developed at birth.
□ True  □ False
 
Everyone has a unique odor identity.
□ True  □ False
 
All smells have an arousal component.
□ True  □ False
 
Answers. All statements are true.