The natural statistics of olfactory perceptual space - The Object and Scene GC-MS Volatolome.

Tali Weiss, Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel (tali.weiss@weizmann.ac.il)
Shani Agron, Brain Sciences, Tali.weiss@weizmann.ac.il, Rehovot, Israel
Noam Sobel, Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute Of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Jonathan Williams, Atmospheric Chemistry, Max Planck Institute For Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

The ultimate goal of digitizing olfaction will entail the ability to recreate a large number of “odor objects” using a limited number of molecular primaries. No matter which method is used to identify these primaries, they will need to effectively capture the perceptual space typically encountered by humans. We want to know what the typical human olfactory world is made of, and what is the cultural/geographical/personal variability of this pallet. In other words, we aim to characterize the natural statistics of human olfactory perceptual space. To begin tackling this, we set out to create a volatolome database for common odor objects (N=200) and scenes (N=100). Each object/scene will be sampled using Gas Chromatography–Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS), will be rated along descriptors by human panel, and will be systematically photographed with the aim to create a cross-referenceable database. All the data collected from Israel and Germany will be made publicly available and open.

 

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Short Biography of Presenting Author

My main research of study is human olfaction.

https://www.weizmann.ac.il/brain-sciences/worg/research