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Experiments to Test How and Why the Sense of Smell Differs Between People

NCT00220038 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 500

Last updated 2012-01-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The ability to smell varies greatly between different individuals. Some people are unable to detect an odor that most people can smell. It is not known what causes these individual differences. Humans have about 1000 genes for odorant receptors that bind and detect odor molecules. It has been shown that some of these genes exist in two forms: a functional one and one that has been mutated and is therefore no longer functional. We think that people who can not smell a specific odor may carry the non-functional form of the gene for the receptor that detects the odor molecule. To test this hypothesis we want to find people who can not detect a specific smell and then compare their odorant receptor genes with those of people who can smell the odor.

Conditions

  • Specific Anosmias

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

smell tests

subjects are instructed to sniff two vials, one containing the solvent, the other a dilution of the odorant. They are asked to scan the vial with the stronger odor.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Rockefeller University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Leslie B. Vosshall, PHD · Rockefeller University

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2004-05-31
Primary Completion
2007-01-31
Completion
2010-05-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00220038 on ClinicalTrials.gov