McGann John P
Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, Psychology Department, Rutgers University, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
Science. 2017 May 12;356(6338). doi: 10.1126/science.aam7263.
It is commonly believed that humans have a poor sense of smell compared to other mammalian species. However, this idea derives not from empirical studies of human olfaction but from a famous 19th-century anatomist's hypothesis that the evolution of human free will required a reduction in the proportional size of the brain's olfactory bulb. The human olfactory bulb is actually quite large in absolute terms and contains a similar number of neurons to that of other mammals. Moreover, humans have excellent olfactory abilities. We can detect and discriminate an extraordinary range of odors, we are more sensitive than rodents and dogs for some odors, we are capable of tracking odor trails, and our behavioral and affective states are influenced by our sense of smell.
人们普遍认为，与其他哺乳动物相比，人类的嗅觉很差。然而，这种观点并非源于对人类嗅觉的实证研究，而是源于19世纪一位著名解剖学家的假设，即人类自由意志的进化需要减少大脑嗅球的相对大小。实际上，从绝对值来看，人类的嗅球相当大，并且包含与其他哺乳动物数量相似的神经元。此外，人类拥有出色的嗅觉能力。我们能够检测和区分种类繁多的气味，对于某些气味，我们比啮齿动物和狗更敏感，我们有能力追踪气味痕迹，并且我们的行为和情感状态会受到嗅觉的影响。
