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Comment by RedAlakazam | Hacker News Reader

As someone who was born without a sense of smell this is incredibly intriguing to me. I've always wondered if there's gonna be a time in my life where I'd be able to experience *any* kind of smell through some new scientific discovery. And maybe this is it.

Could I shoot you guys a message when I make my way down to Caltech to try this out someday? :)

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Out of curiosity, does lacking the sense of smell influence your sense of taste? Do some things taste wildly differently to you versus how your friends would describe them? I have a very weak sense of smell that comes and goes (sometimes I get weeks without being able to smell anything other than the strongest scents) and it definitely has an impact on my appetite and how much I enjoy certain foods. I have noticed that I'm much more sensitive to texture and mouth feel than others and I suspect it's because of this, but I also have AuDHD so I can't be sure.

Genuine question: how would they know if it has always been a certain way?

If they _lost_ their sense of smell, they had something to compare it with.

That's why I asked about comparison with friends etc. Senses are highly subjective, hard to describe and I'm not a matter expert so I'm not hoping for a quantitative answer, but despite all this I believe there still are some learnings to be had from such discussions. HN is mainly a curiosity-driven forum - without this, we'd just complain about AI eating the world ad nauseam.

I'm also a lot more sensitive about texture and mouth feel than friends and family. I know that my taste of things differs from others substantially and I cannot appreciate any nuances in food. Fine dining for example is just wasted on me. You could for example mix a lot of cinnamon, thyme, cilantro and turmeric in my rice and I wouldn't notice any difference as I just can't taste most spices at all since they seem mostly smell based. This also makes it a lot harder for me to actually pinpoint what I like about certain dishes and dislike about others. It's just a combination of texture and the basic tastes. I imagine someone who lost their sense of smell later in life would find the way I experience food horribly bland, but I don't! I still find great joy in food, just in a simpler way I guess.

The condition is called Anosmia and can stem from different sensor and brain conditions. It would be interesting to try the technique on people with these conditions to map the different kinds of olfactory failures.

If you get in contact with the researchers, please let us know how it went.

Please include me also in contacts. I developed anosmia about 8 years ago (well before COVID). I truly wish there were some sort of 'cure' that would restore even a small amount of my sense of smell.

Since you never had any sense of smell, would this help you in developing memories about smell ? I am curious on how your brain react to smell sensation when it does not have any memory associated with it.

That's also something I think about when imagining smelling for the first time.

E.g. smelling something rancid for the first time - how strong of a negative reaction will it be compared to others who grew up with this negative association. Would I ever even be able to map most of the smells others have memorized to their origin? I really hope I get to find out someday.

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