Zucco Gesualdo M, Hummel Thomas, Tomaiuolo Francesco, Stevenson Richard J
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden, Germany.
J Neurosci Methods. 2014 Jan 30;222:138-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.11.006. Epub 2013 Nov 15.
Amongst the techniques to assess olfactory functions, discrimination and cued identification are those most prone to the influence of odour short-term memory (STM). Discrimination task requires participants to detect the odd one out of three presented odourants. As re-smelling is not permitted, an un-intended STM load may generate, even though the task purports to assess discrimination ability. Analogously, cued identification task requires participants to smell an odour, and then select a label from three or four alternatives. As the interval between smelling and reading each label increases this too imposes a STM load, even though the task aims to measure identification ability.
We tested whether modifying task design to reduce STM load improve performance on these tests. We examined five age-groups of participants (Adolescents, Young adults, Middle-aged, Elderly, very Elderly), some of whom should be more prone to the effects of STM load than others, on standard and modified tests of discrimination and identification.
We found that using a technique to reduce STM load improved performance, especially for the very Elderly and Adolescent groups.
Sources of error are now prevented.
Findings indicate that STM load can adversely affect performance in groups vulnerable from memory impairment (i.e., very Elderly) and in those who may still be acquiring memory-based representations of familiar odours (i.e., Adolescents). It may be that adults in general would be even more sensitive to the effects of olfactory STM load reduction, if the odour-related task was more difficult.
在评估嗅觉功能的技术中，辨别和线索识别最容易受到气味短期记忆（STM）的影响。辨别任务要求参与者从三种呈现的气味剂中检测出不同的那一种。由于不允许再次闻嗅，即使该任务旨在评估辨别能力，也可能会产生意外的STM负荷。类似地，线索识别任务要求参与者闻一种气味，然后从三到四个选项中选择一个标签。随着闻嗅和阅读每个标签之间的时间间隔增加——尽管该任务旨在测量识别能力——这也会带来STM负荷。
我们测试了修改任务设计以减少STM负荷是否能提高这些测试的表现。我们在标准和修改后的辨别与识别测试中，对五个年龄组的参与者（青少年、年轻人、中年人、老年人、高龄老年人）进行了测试，其中一些人比其他人更容易受到STM负荷的影响。
我们发现，使用一种减少STM负荷的技术可以提高表现，尤其是对高龄老年人和青少年组。
现在可以避免误差来源。
研究结果表明，STM负荷会对易受记忆损害影响的群体（即高龄老年人）以及那些可能仍在获取熟悉气味基于记忆表征的群体（即青少年）的表现产生不利影响。如果与气味相关的任务更难，那么一般来说成年人可能对嗅觉STM负荷降低的影响更加敏感。
