Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Chem Senses. 2010 Jan;35(1):3-20. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjp083. Epub 2009 Nov 25.
Although referred to in passing in several places, there have been few attempts to specify the functions of the human olfactory system. This article presents an initial effort at identifying and categorizing these functions, using 3 sources of information as a guide: 1) losses experienced by anosmic participants; 2) olfactory function in other mammals; and 3) capacity, namely, whether the human olfactory system can support the suggested function and whether there is evidence that it does. Three major classes of function were identified, relating to Ingestion (Detection/identification prior to ingestion; Detection of expectancy violations; Appetite regulation; Breast orientation and feeding), Avoiding environmental hazards (Fear related; Disgust related), and Social communication (Reproductive [inbreeding avoidance, fitness detection in prospective mates]; Emotional contagion [fear contagion, stress buffering]). These suggested functions were then examined with respect to 1) issues of ecological validity in human olfactory research; 2) their impact on olfactory loss; and 3) their general and specific implications for the study of human olfaction.
虽然在几个地方都有提到，但很少有人试图具体说明人类嗅觉系统的功能。本文旨在使用 3 种信息来源作为指导，来识别和分类这些功能：1）嗅觉丧失者的体验；2）其他哺乳动物的嗅觉功能；3）能力，即人类嗅觉系统是否能够支持所提出的功能，以及是否有证据表明它确实如此。确定了三大类功能，涉及摄入（摄入前的检测/识别；对期望违反的检测；食欲调节；乳房定位和哺乳）、避免环境危害（与恐惧相关；与厌恶相关）和社会交流（生殖[避免近亲繁殖，检测潜在伴侣的健康状况]；情绪感染[恐惧感染，压力缓冲]）。然后，这些建议的功能分别从以下几个方面进行了检查：1）人类嗅觉研究中生态有效性的问题；2）它们对嗅觉丧失的影响；3）它们对人类嗅觉研究的普遍和具体意义。
