SMELLS that you can’t detect on their own can be clearly perceived if you
sniff and taste at the same time, say scientists in Pennsylvania. The finding
may help vindicate people who complain of unpleasant environmental odours that
tests show are below detectable levels, they say.
Scientists have known for some time that in a single sensory system such as
taste, stimuli at subthreshold levels can be detected when several are combined.
Pamela Dalton and her colleagues at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in
Philadelphia decided to test the interaction between the different senses of
taste and smell, which are…
