Having A Hard Time Processing Your Emotions? Blame Your Sense Of Smell For It

[Triton]

Having A Hard Time Processing Your Emotions? Blame Your Sense Of Smell For It
https://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/having-a-hard-time-processing-your-emotions-blame-your-sense-of-smell-for-it-332652.html

[kurokawa8]

Here's the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14404-x

I score highly on the TAS-20 and I experience hyperarousal with respect to odor.  Smells drive me crazy. 

What would happen with emotional processing if odor sense was removed?  I think the best way to do it would be to wear noseplugs and go on a water-only fast because taste and odor are linked.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/taste-and-smell/
"The senses of taste and smell are related because they use the same types of receptors and are stimulated by molecules in solutions or air."

Anyone want to give it a try...?

[kurokawa8]

I found something called anosmia, or lack of smell.  It doesn't appear to be correlated with alexithymia in any way.  Wiki says it is associated with depression and reduced quality of life.

One interesting thing from the Wiki:
"A study done on patients suffering from anosmia found that when testing both nostrils, there was no anosmia revealed; however, when testing each nostril individually, tests showed that the sense of smell was usually affected in only one of the nostrils as opposed to both. This demonstrated that unilateral anosmia is not uncommon in anosmia patients."

Perhaps those of us with reduced innervation of the left frontal cortex might have a compensating hyperarousal on the right side of the nostril?  i should put some energy into odor awareness when I do my HEG stimulation of my left frontal cortex.

[Shawn Walker]

I have never had a strong sense of smell but the ones that do register are always very intense and spark a lot of memories.