Relationship between the differential adsorption of odorants by the olfactory mucus and their perception in mixtures

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Abstract
It was proposed recently that the differential adsorption of odorants by the olfactory mucus may constitute the first step in the processing of odor mixtures [Laing, D.G. (1988) Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 510, 61–66]. In the present study psychophysical procedures were used to determine if there was a relationship between differential adsorption by the olfactory mucus and the perception of odorants of different polarity in binary mixtures. With the eight odor pairs studied, differential adsorption and the polarity of an odorant were not predictors of how well an odorant would be perceived in a mixture or how it would suppress or enhance the perception of other odorants.