Do you smell things that aren’t there? If so, you are not alone. A recently published study finds that so-called phantom odor perception is much more common than you might think.
Phantom odor perception (POP) describes the experience of smelling something — perhaps burning hair or an ashtray — that is not there.
This experience is well documented, but very little specific research has been carried out.
Scientists of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) recently conducted a study into POP, asking why it might occur in certain people but not others.
Kathleen Bainbridge, Ph.D., led the study. Its findings are now published in JAMA Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.
Researcher Judith A. Cooper, Ph.D., the acting director of the NIDCD, explains why this topic is important.
“Problems with the sense of smell are often overlooked,” she says, “despite their importance. They can have a big impact on appetite, food preferences, and the ability to smell danger signals such as fire, gas leaks, and spoiled food.“
The statistics behind POP
The researchers took data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They used data from more than 7,000 people over 40 years old, taken in 2011–2014.
Within the questionnaire was the question, “Do you sometimes smell an unpleasant, bad, or burning odor when nothing is there?”
They discovered that, overall, 6.5 percent of people over the age of 40 experienced POP, which equates to around 1 in 15 people.
Sense of smell tends to decline with age, but the opposite seemed to be the case for POP. Around 5 percent of over 60s experienced the phenomenon, but the figure was much higher in the 40–60 age range.
