Clinical Assessment of Retronasal Olfactory Function

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
IN EVERYDAY LIFE, olfactory-mediated sensations are often confused with gustatory-mediated sensations. Retronasally perceived odors are referred to the oral cavity rather than to the olfactory epithelium. In fact, in some languages the word taste is used to refer to both the olfactory and gustatory components of food. Rozin1 described the sense of smell in terms of a duality, with orthonasal smelling referring to the outside world and retronasal smelling referring to the inside world. Differences between these perceptually different worlds are only partly understood. In fact, hedonic evaluation may be completely different for the same olfactory component when applied either orthonasally or retronasally, which is observed, for example, with cheese or fish.1