Cognitive factors in odor detection, odor discrimination, and odor identification tasks

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine cognitive correlates of olfactory performance across three different tasks. A total of 170 men and women (30-87 years of age) were assessed in olfactory sensitivity, discrimination, and identification. Also, participants were tested in a range of cognitive tests covering executive functioning, semantic memory, and episodic memory. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that proficiency in executive functioning and semantic memory contributed significantly to odor discrimination and identification performance, whereas all of the cognitive factors proved unrelated to performance in the odor threshold test. This pattern of outcome suggests that an individual's cognitive profile exerts a reliable influence on performance in higher order olfactory tasks.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1062-7
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
Volume32
Issue number10
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2010
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 77955653547
ORCID /0000-0001-9713-0183/work/164619743

Keywords

Keywords

  • Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cognition/physiology, Discrimination, Psychological/physiology, Executive Function, Female, Humans, Male, Memory/physiology, Middle Aged, Odorants, Olfactory Perception/physiology, Predictive Value of Tests, Smell/physiology, Socioeconomic Factors