Human sense of smell is faster than previously thought, new study suggests [Video]

Your nose may be more powerful than you think.In a single sniff, the human sense of smell can distinguish odors within a fraction of a second, working at a level of sensitivity that is “on par” with how our brains perceive color, “refuting the widely held belief that olfaction is our slow sense,” a new study finds.Related video above: Nasal sprays are the new frontier of medical innovationHumans also can discern between various sequences of odors – distinguishing a sequence of “A” before “B” from sequence “B” before “A” – when the interval between odorant A and odorant B is merely 60 milliseconds, according to the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.”We were astonished to observe that participants could distinguish between two odorants presented in one order and the reverse when the latency between the odorants was as short as 60 milliseconds,” Dr. Wen Zhou, lead author …