From molecules to perception: 128 years at the forefront of olfactory science

Christian Margot1, Emeritus distinguished scientist; Matthew Rogers2, Senior vice-president, chemosensory sciences; Sarah Reisinger1, Chief research officer

ADDRESSES

1. Firmenich SA, Rue de la Bergère 7, 1242 Satigny, Switzerland.

2. Firmenich Incorporated, 250 Plainsboro Road, Building M3,Plainsboro, NJ 08536, United States.

Olfaction is one of the most elusive of the human senses. It sustains life by enabling several critical functions, such as our ability to locate and select food, our choice of mates, influencing our social life and helping with danger avoidance. And the olfactory system has the striking ability to elicit powerful emotions, feelings, and memories, thereby impacting quality of life. These qualities, and our resulting, inherent attraction to fragrance, have driven firms like Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned perfume and taste company, to explore the mysteries of olfaction and to be innovatory in developing fragrance and flavour.

Despite olfaction’s vital role, our understanding of its mechanisms is still limited. Complex biochemistry is at play in our olfactive response as soon as we develop in the womb. Odorants, mostly organic molecules that are released into the womb or in our atmospheric environment after birth, are detected by specialized olfactory receptor cells in the nasal cavity. The odorants are then transformed into spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity in the olfactory bulb and central nervous system, and decoded by the brain to generate a perceptual ‘odour object’ that enables us to recognize the identity, intensity, and valence of an odour. Odorants induce a variety of responses, from giving simple behavioural signals to generating sophisticated cognitive and emotional changes or feelings.

尽管嗅觉起着至关重要的作用，但我们对其机制的理解仍然有限。当我们在子宫里发育时，复杂的生物化学就在我们的嗅觉反应中发挥作用。气味，大多数是有机分子，在出生后释放到子宫或我们的大气环境中，由鼻腔中的专门嗅觉受体细胞检测到。然后，气味被转化为嗅球和中枢神经系统中神经活动的时空模式，并被大脑解码，从而产生一个感知的“气味对象”，使我们能够识别气味的身份、强度和价格。气味会引起各种各样的反应，从给出简单的行为信号到产生复杂的认知和情感变化或感觉。

Human responses to smell are at the root of the demand for fragrances and the growth of a global industry. Scents elicit human emotions such as happiness, relaxation and excitement, and evoke profound memories. The delights of perfume were known to ancient civilizations; references to perfume and incense bringing joy to the heart are found in the Bible. By the late nineteenth century, perfumery was booming, gripped by transformation from an artisanal activity to industrial-scale production for the modern consumer era. Organic chemistry had opened new avenues to produce rare and expensive natural ingredients that usually were distilled or pressed from raw plants. Science would continue to shape the development of fragrance and flavours over the next century, driving the need for deeper understanding and opening up opportunities for innovation.

人类对气味的反应是香水需求和全球产业发展的根源。气味会引发人们的情绪，如快乐、放松和兴奋，并唤起深刻的记忆。古代文明都知道香水的美妙之处;圣经中提到香水和熏香能给心灵带来快乐。到19世纪后期，香水业蓬勃发展，从手工活动转变为现代消费时代的工业规模生产。有机化学为生产稀有而昂贵的天然原料开辟了新的途径，这些原料通常是从原始植物中蒸馏或压榨出来的。在接下来的一个世纪里，科学将继续塑造香水和香精的发展，推动对更深入理解的需求，并为创新开辟机会。

Pioneering the technology of scent

开创香味技术

On November 1, 1895, a daring Swiss chemist and a young businessman set up their laboratory in a rented garage in Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to ride the wave of this technological boom. Philippe Chuit and Martin Naef would not become global household names like the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who followed a similar template nearly a century later. But they were driven by a similar spirit of innovation, and soon became renowned in their trade. Chuit had developed a new process to synthesize vanillin, at the time a recently discovered ingredient prized by perfumers.

1895年11月1日，一位大胆的瑞士化学家和一位年轻的商人在瑞士日内瓦一间租来的车库里建立了他们的实验室，试图搭上这股科技热潮的顺风车。Philippe Chuit和Martin Naef不会像近一个世纪后遵循类似模式的硅谷企业家那样成为全球家喻户晓的名字。但他们都被类似的创新精神所驱动，并很快在他们的行业中成名。楚伊特发明了一种合成香兰素的新工艺，当时香兰素是一种新发现的成分，受到调香师的青睐。

Over the following century, molecules and pioneering olfactory science would become the building blocks of a global business-to-business perfume and taste company. Today, Firmenich employs 10,000 people, comprises six research centers in Geneva, Switzerland; Princeton and San Diego in the United States; Shanghai; Gujarat in India; and Castets in France, manages a portfolio of more than 4,000 active patents and, in 2021, generated an annual turnover of CHF 4.3 billion.

在接下来的一个世纪里，分子和开创性的嗅觉科学将成为一家全球企业对企业香水和味道公司的基石。今天，芬美意拥有10,000名员工，包括位于瑞士日内瓦的六个研究中心;美国的普林斯顿和圣地亚哥;上海;印度的古吉拉特邦;该公司管理着4000多项有效专利，并于2021年创造了43亿瑞士法郎的年营业额。

The group serves the body and home care, fine fragrance, food and beverage industries, extending to support for health and wellness. Firmenich ingredients are found in everyday products used by consumers worldwide.

集团服务于身体和家庭护理、高级香水、食品和饮料行业，延伸到健康和保健的支持。芬美意香料广泛应用于全球消费者的日常用品中。

From an early focus on synthesizing prized fragrance ingredients, and in the mid-twentieth century to supply and develop flavour ingredients, the scope of scientific endeavour at Firmenich and its sophistication have grown exponentially. The science now extends well beyond chemistry. Scientific understanding of the discovery and development of ingredients and of the mechanisms of human olfaction has also evolved significantly. While science continues to enable us to harness the best of nature with efficient natural extraction technologies, it has also expanded our capacity to reduce impacts on scarce natural resources from the outset of research, including the application of green chemistry principles and biotechnology for ingredient production.

从早期专注于合成珍贵的香料成分，到20世纪中期提供和开发香料成分，芬美意的科学研究范围及其复杂性呈指数级增长。这门科学现在已经远远超出了化学的范畴。对香料的发现和发展以及人类嗅觉机制的科学理解也有了显著的发展。科学不断使我们能够利用高效的自然提取技术来利用大自然的精华，同时也扩大了我们从研究开始就减少对稀缺自然资源影响的能力，包括应用绿色化学原理和生物技术来生产原料。

The human senses, primarily taste and smell, but also sight and touch, are at the heart of our development of new fragrances and flavours. Today, Firmenich is engaged in research on the pathways of odour and taste perception, from the physiochemistry of emission of a fragrance or flavour at its source to the detection of these substances in our tongue and nose, and ultimately their perception in our brain – all to understand which sensory characteristics drive consumer preferences and positive emotions. The company’s in-house research and development team is multidisciplinary, encompassing biotechnology, analytical and organic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, receptor biology, plant biology, psychophysics, materials science, data science and process engineering.

人类的感官，主要是味觉和嗅觉，还有视觉和触觉，是我们开发新香水和风味的核心。今天，芬美意致力于气味和味觉感知途径的研究，从香味或味道在源头释放的物理化学，到舌头和鼻子对这些物质的检测，以及最终在我们大脑中的感知——所有这些都是为了了解哪些感官特征驱动了消费者的偏好和积极的情绪。该公司的内部研发团队是多学科的，包括生物技术、分析和有机化学、生物化学、微生物学、受体生物学、植物生物学、心理物理学、材料科学、数据科学和处理工程。

Discovering fragrance molecules

发现香味分子

Within three years, Chuit and Naef had moved from the garage at the end of Charles Firmenich’s garden into new industrial premises in Geneva and employed more than 20 people. The ties with the Firmenich family deepened through marriage and business. By 1900, Frédéric Firmenich, an entrepreneur, had joined the duo. The company would eventually be renamed Firmenich & Cie in 1934, after Chuit and Naef’s retirement, and remains family owned to this day.

不到三年，楚伊特和纳夫就从查尔斯·芬美意花园尽头的车库搬到了日内瓦的新工业区，雇佣了20多名员工。他与芬美意家族的关系通过婚姻和生意加深。到1900年，企业家弗雷德里希·芬美意加入了这两家公司。1934年，在楚伊特和纳夫退休后，公司最终更名为芬美意(Firmenich & Cie)，至今仍是家族企业。

Together, Chuit, Naef and Frédéric Firmenich developed the model that has shaped the success of Firmenich. Science and innovation were the engines of growth, combining with creativity, commercial acumen and long-term vision to produce desirable and high-quality fragrance – and later taste – ingredients for producers of consumer goods.

楚伊特, 纳夫和弗雷德里希·芬美意共同开发了塑造芬美意成功的模式。科学和创新是增长的引擎，结合创造力、商业敏锐度和长期愿景，为消费品生产商生产出令人满意的高品质香味——以及后来的味道——原料。

Chuit was more than an inventive and skilled scientist. He also gained a reputation as a ‘nez’ (‘nose’), a perfumer with a fine sense of smell. Initially specializing in floral notes, he was capable of identifying and developing molecules, combining them to make appealing fragrances and developing production at sufficient scale to sell them to business customers. He also set out to push the boundaries of human olfaction, inventing smells that appeared to be new, not simply to imitate nature.

楚伊特不仅仅是一个有创造力和技术娴熟的科学家。他还获得了“鼻子”(nez)的声誉，这是一种嗅觉敏锐的香水师。他最初专注于花香，能够识别和开发分子，将它们组合成吸引人的香味，并开发足够规模的生产以销售给商业客户。他还着手突破人类嗅觉的界限，发明了一些似乎是新的气味，而不仅仅是模仿自然。

An early tribute to his innovation came in 1904. Chuit had conjured up violettone and Dianthine, a spicy combination of carnation, rose and iris, which attracted French perfumer François Coty, a revolutionary figure in modern perfumery. A decade later, when French fashion houses joined the perfumery business as well, the company recruited perfumer Maurice Chevron in Paris. Since then, Firmenich’s science-led research team has worked closely with talented in-house perfumers who have carved out award-winning reputations in their own right in the creative world of fragrance.

对他的创新的早期致敬出现在1904年。楚伊特发明了紫罗兰和Dianthine，这是一种康乃馨、玫瑰和鸢尾花的辛辣组合，吸引了现代香水界的革命人物，法国调香师francoisois Coty。十年后，当法国时装公司也加入香水业务时，该公司在巴黎聘请了调香师莫里斯·雪佛龙(Maurice Chevron)。从那时起，芬美意以科学为主导的研究团队与才华横溢的内部调香师密切合作，这些调香师在香水的创意世界中凭借自己的能力赢得了屡获殊荣的声誉。

Chuit was constantly seeking to boost the company’s capacity for innovation. By 1921, he had developed a research programme that drew on cooperation with academic institutions, effectively forming the equivalent of a modern-day incubator. Leopold Ružička of ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, was among those who were offered laboratory space in Geneva, and the prospect of a relative degree of independence (Fig. 1). Ružička brought experience from a team at the forefront of research into terpenes and macrocyclic compounds.

楚伊特一直在寻求提高公司的创新能力。到1921年，他制定了一个研究计划，利用与学术机构的合作，有效地形成了一个相当于现代孵化器的项目。位于苏黎世的瑞士联邦理工学院ETH的Leopold Ružička是在日内瓦获得实验室空间的人之一，并且有望获得相对程度的独立性(图1)。Ružička 带来了萜烯和大环化合物研究前沿团队的经验。

Figure 1. Leopold Ružička elucidated the structure of two musk odour molecules while he was head of Firmenech’s research laboratory, paving the way for the production of musks for perfumery.

图1所示。 Leopold Ružička阐明了两种麝香分子的结构，当时他是芬美意研究实验室的负责人，为生产香水用麝香铺平了道路。

It was a meeting of minds and the personal chemistry was reflected in their leading-edge science. While Chuit focused more on industrial research, Ružička became head of the research laboratory from 1925 to 1927. He set the direction for olfactory discovery and subsequently maintained an influential role in Firmenich science for the rest of his career as a professor. A first avenue was musk odour, a prized ingredient in perfumery because of its capacity to heighten olfactory perception, which was largely procured from deer or civet cats at the time. Ružička’s work on substitutes for naturally occurring musk odour allowed him to elucidate the structure of two key molecules, muscone and civetone. In 1925, Firmenich started production of Exaltone, an initial ingredient to emerge from this body of research.

这是一次思想的相遇，个性化学反映在他们的前沿科学上。当楚伊特更专注于工业研究时，Ružička从1925年到1927年成为研究实验室的负责人。他为嗅觉发现设定了方向，并在随后的教授生涯中一直在芬美意科学领域发挥着重要作用。第一个途径是麝香，这是一种珍贵的香水成分，因为它能增强嗅觉，当时主要是从麝鹿或果子狸身上获得的。Ružička对天然麝香气味替代品的研究使他能够阐明两个关键分子的结构，麝香酮和灵猫酮。1925年，芬美意开始生产Exaltone，这是该研究中出现的最初成分。

Ružička was jointly awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1939, with Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes, and his research for fragrances was acknowledged in the Nobel citation. This era marked the beginning of close collaboration with academic researchers that is replicated today in Firmenich’s network of open innovation partners worldwide, ranging from renowned research institutes and academics to dynamic start-ups (Fig. 2).

1939年，Ružička与阿道夫·弗里德里希·约翰·布特南特(Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt)共同获得了诺贝尔化学奖，以表彰他在聚亚甲基和高级萜烯方面的工作，他在香水方面的研究也得到了诺贝尔奖的认可。这个时代标志着芬美意与学术研究人员密切合作的开始，如今芬美意在全球的开放式创新合作伙伴网络中复制了这种合作伙伴关系，从知名的研究机构和学术机构到充满活力的初创企业(图2)。

Figure 2. A researcher uses an instrument called a gas chromatograph (GC). The process of gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) uses a GC to separate the volatile compounds, and then the odour is detected using an olfactometer.

图2  研究人员使用一种叫做气相色谱仪(GC)的仪器。气相色谱-嗅觉法(GC-O)的过程使用气相色谱分离挥发性化合物，然后使用嗅觉仪检测气味。

Unravelling the sense of smell

揭开嗅觉的面纱

These relationships were pivotal for smell and taste research. To mark the company’s seventy-fifth anniversary in 1970, the then chief executive officer, Roger Firmenich, an accomplished chemist, organized an international symposium on gustation and olfaction. Ružička was celebrated at the event by fellow scientists. But the symposium also had its sights on new frontiers, signalling growing interest in the nascent field of chemoreception and research on the senses of smell and taste.

这些关系对嗅觉和味觉研究至关重要。1970年，为了纪念公司成立75周年，时任首席执行官罗杰·芬美意(Roger Firmenich)组织了一次关于味觉和嗅觉的国际研讨会。在这次活动中，科学家们一同庆祝了Ružička的成就。但这次研讨会也将目光投向了新的领域，表明人们对化学感知这一新兴领域以及嗅觉和味觉研究的兴趣日益浓厚。

Ružička, his former laboratory assistant and successor Max Stoll, and subsequent Firmenich research heads Edouard Demole and Gunther Ohloff, were among a long line of scientists in a variety of commercial or academic settings who made significant progress during the twentieth century in deciphering the chemical identity of odorants (Fig. 3). They helped shape the fragrance industry by leading discoveries such as Hedione, an emblematic ingredient capturing the freshness of jasmine, Ambrox, a substitute for ambergris, and rose ketone bases. By 2014, Firmenich launched the first in a succession of renewable perfumery ingredients obtained from biomass using industrial biotechnology, including Clearwood, reminiscent of rare patchouli oil, and most recently Dreamwood in 2020, inspired by Mysore sandalwood, a protected plant species.

Ružička的前实验室助理和继任者Max Stoll，以及后来的芬美意研究主管Edouard Demole和Gunther Ohloff，都是20世纪在各种商业或学术环境中在破译气味剂的化学特性方面取得重大进展的众多科学家中的一员(图3)。他们通过领先的发现帮助塑造了香水行业，如Hedione(二氢茉莉酮酸甲酯)，一种捕捉茉莉花新鲜的标志性成分，Ambrox(降龙涎香醚)，龙涎香和玫瑰酮碱的替代品。到2014年，芬美意推出了一系列使用工业生物技术从生物质中获得的可再生香料成分中的第一个，包括Clearwood，让人想起罕见的广藿香油，以及2020年最新的Dreamwood，灵感来自受保护的植物物种迈索尔檀香。

In more recent decades, science has gradually been decoding the mysteries of our perception of smells. Researchers have made inroads in characterizing the human brain’s responses to odorants and in elucidating the molecular and genetic components involved in reception and transduction – the conversion of smells into electrical signals.

近几十年来，科学逐渐解开了我们对气味感知的奥秘。研究人员在描述人类大脑对气味的反应以及阐明参与接收和转导(将气味转化为电信号)的分子和遗传成分方面取得了进展。

In particular, in vertebrates, the ability to perceive a wide variety of organic molecules, and to distinguish between them, is made possible by the existence of a huge family of odorant receptors. These receptors also enable the encoding of the odour in a combinatorial manner. Linda Buck and Richard Axel, the 2004 Nobel laureates for medicine and physiology, heralded a new era of smell research in the twenty-first century with their discoveries on odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system, identifying approximately 1,000 receptor genes in rodents. From thinking focused on one receptor per odour, this breakthrough sparked research into the mechanisms by which the odorant receptors can decode the complexity of odours, their types or combinations and the differentiated way receptors may detect them.

特别是，在脊椎动物中，由于存在一个巨大的气味受体家族，它们能够感知各种各样的有机分子，并将它们区分开来。这些感受器还能以组合方式对气味进行编码。2004年诺贝尔医学奖和生理学奖得主琳达·巴克(Linda Buck)和理查德·阿克塞尔(Richard Axel)在气味受体和嗅觉系统组织方面的发现，在啮齿动物中发现了大约1000个受体基因，预示着21世纪嗅觉研究的新时代的到来。从专注于每种气味的一个受体的想法，这一突破引发了对气味受体解码气味复杂性，它们的类型或组合以及受体检测气味的不同方式的机制的研究。

Receptor biology has shed new light on the mechanisms behind odour perception, but there is still a lot to uncover. Cognitive sciences also unlock further understanding of the human senses by helping to map how smell and taste stimuli are transformed into physiological, cognitive and emotional responses. Research into the highly complex interactions of molecules with hundreds of olfactory receptors in the human nose has given us an edge in understanding the mechanisms of olfaction. But many more avenues are ripe for discovery.

受体生物学已经揭示了气味感知背后的机制，但仍有很多有待发现。认知科学还有助于揭示嗅觉和味觉刺激如何转化为生理、认知和情绪反应，从而进一步了解人类的感官。对分子与人类鼻子中数百个嗅觉受体高度复杂的相互作用的研究，使我们在理解嗅觉机制方面具有优势。但更多的途径已经成熟，等待我们去发现。

Exploring fresh insights on olfaction

探索嗅觉的新见解

More recent observation that most odorants may act as an agonist or antagonist of a specific receptor demonstrates the possibility of generating an almost infinite number of possible codes, potentially translating into an almost infinite number of odours1,2. The discovery of these antagonists has enabled new and highly effective approaches to malodour control. By naturally blocking the activity of the malodour receptor, antagonists of faecal malodour receptors temporarily and reversibly reduce the perceived intensity of the bad smell. The expansion of the combinatorial model to antagonism has spurred new research into identification of the most effective combinations of antagonists and how to deliver them at effective levels for each type of product.

最近的观察表明，大多数气味剂可以作为一种特定受体的激动剂或拮抗剂，这表明产生几乎无限数量的可能代码的可能性，可能转化为几乎无限数量的气味1,2。这些拮抗剂的发现为恶臭控制提供了新的高效方法。通过自然地阻断恶臭受体的活动，粪便恶臭受体的拮抗剂暂时地、可逆地降低了难闻气味的感知强度。将组合模型扩展到拮抗作用，刺激了新的研究，以确定最有效的拮抗剂组合，以及如何为每种产品提供有效水平的拮抗剂。

Currently, there are gaps in the understanding of the molecular interactions of odorants with the apparently promiscuous olfactory receptors of terrestrial organisms. The existence of agonism, competitive antagonism, and allosteric modulation might explain the difficulty in predicting the smell of a mixture based on its components, as well as the fragrance industry’s need for the accumulated craft of perfumers and their acute sense of smell, acquired over many years of training and experience. Data science and artificial intelligence provide powerful tools to explore new solutions.

目前，对气味剂与陆生生物明显混杂的嗅觉受体之间的分子相互作用的理解还存在空白。激动作用、竞争拮抗作用和变构调节的存在可能解释了基于混合物成分预测气味的困难，以及香水行业对调香师积累的工艺和敏锐嗅觉的需求，这些都是经过多年的培训和经验获得的。数据科学和人工智能为探索新的解决方案提供了强大的工具。

The complex interactions between an odour and its receptor(s) should provide a new lens to probe fundamental questions about how odour is encoded in the periphery. They shed new light on the long-standing paradox that odours with widely different chemical structures can generate the same odour percept. This might be related to the phenomenon of concentration invariance – the perceived odour quality remains the same over a wide range of concentrations for many odorants, despite the recruitment of additional olfactory receptors with increasing amounts of odorant. The timing of electrical signalling in the olfactory bulb has very recently been shown to establish a hierarchy among odorant receptors, with shorter latencies for high affinity receptors, granting them a major role in shaping the output olfactory message to the brain3. Furthermore, the huge interindividual variability of the genetic makeup of the odorant receptors has been shown to determine sensitivity and odour perception4. This makes it even more difficult to elucidate how the vertebrate brain interprets the molecular receptor code in the periphery.

气味和它的受体之间复杂的相互作用应该提供一个新的焦距来探索关于气味是如何在外围编码的基本问题。他们为长期存在的悖论提供了新的线索，即化学结构截然不同的气味可以产生相同的气味感知。这可能与浓度不变性现象有关——尽管随着气味量的增加，额外的嗅觉受体会增加，但对许多气味剂来说，在很宽的浓度范围内，感知到的气味属性保持不变。最近的研究表明，嗅球中电信号的时间在气味受体之间建立了等级制度，高亲和受体的潜伏期较短，这使它们在形成向大脑输出的嗅觉信息方面发挥了重要作用。此外，气味受体基因组成的巨大个体间差异已被证明决定了敏感度和气味感知。这使得阐明脊椎动物大脑如何解释周围的分子受体代码变得更加困难。

Psycho-physiology, examining issues such as heart rate or skin conductivity with smell or taste, is one of the most recent tools to be added to the olfactory researcher’s box. Researchers are gaining fresh understanding of transduction, the conversion of sensation into electrical signals to the brain, but little account for odour perception. This is why advanced, dynamic and high-resolution brain imaging is needed to correlate these avenues of research and better understand our physiological response to scent.

心理生理学，通过嗅觉或味觉检查心率或皮肤电导率等问题，是嗅觉研究人员新近加入的工具之一。研究人员对转导有了新的认识，即感觉转化为大脑的电信号，但对气味感知的解释很少。这就是为什么需要先进的、动态的和高分辨率的大脑成像来关联这些研究途径，更好地理解我们对气味的生理反应。

These new methods are also key to the study of the fate and significance of the olfactory message in humans. As in all vertebrates, the human olfactory system has very direct connections to the emotion and navigation centers in the brain.

这些新方法也是研究人类嗅觉信息命运和意义的关键。与所有脊椎动物一样，人类的嗅觉系统与大脑中的情感和导航中心有着非常直接的联系。

Behavioural observations across animal species have provided insight into a rich collection of transformations and behaviours that are elicited by olfaction and dependent on context. In mammals, the olfactory system is also intensely connected to respiration and mouth activity5. As a result, odorants inhaled through a sniff of surrounding air may elicit a different sensation than the same odorants detected during expiration of air expelled when food is chewed6. Furthermore, effects as diverse as pheromonal communication, recognition of relatives, fear transmission, food tracking and homing, have been documented. Scientists today wonder to what extent may some of these effects subsist in humans.

对动物物种的行为观察提供了对丰富的由嗅觉引起的依赖于环境的转变和行为的见解。哺乳动物的嗅觉系统也与呼吸和口腔活动密切相关。因此，通过嗅闻周围空气而吸入的气味可能会引起与咀嚼食物时排出的空气中所探测到的气味不同的感觉。此外，信息素交流、亲属识别、恐惧传递、食物追踪和回家导引等各种影响都已被记录在案。今天的科学家们想知道，这些影响在多大程度上可能存在于人类身上。

The ancient view that humans have a poor sense of smell relative to other species is no longer pertinent7. Rigorous scientific research has demonstrated the possibility of pheromonal cues in the interaction of mothers and newborn children8 or in fear transmission9.

认为人类的嗅觉比其他物种差的古老观点已经不再有意义了。严谨的科学研究已经证明，信息素线索可能存在于母亲和新生儿的互动中，也可能存在于恐惧的传播中。

More frequently, research has focused on the indirect effects of fragrances, which rely on associations and memories to resuscitate the affective context of a past experience of a given smell. The French novelist Marcel Proust captured the concept perfectly with his description of the madeleine, a small sponge cake that evoked pleasant smells or tastes reminding his fictional character of childhood.

更常见的是，研究集中在香味的间接影响上，它依赖于联想和记忆来恢复过去对特定气味体验的情感背景。法国小说家马塞尔·普鲁斯特(Marcel Proust)用他对玛德琳(madeleine)的描述完美地诠释了这一概念。玛德琳是一种小海绵蛋糕，它能唤起令人愉快的气味或味道，让他的小说人物想起童年。

Through long-term collaboration with an academic research partner, Firmenich has jointly studied the affective responses of humans to perfumes and aromas (Fig. 4). These culture-specific responses may consistently be mapped over several dimensions10. Remarkably, the major affective dimensions elicited by a collection of perfumes were found to correlate with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain response patterns11.

通过与学术研究伙伴的长期合作，芬美意共同研究了人类对香水和香气的情感反应(图4)。这些特定文化的反应可以一致地映射到几个维度10。值得注意的是，一组香水引发的主要情感维度被发现与功能性磁共振成像(fMRI)大脑反应模式相关。

Figure 4. Evaluating feelings. Derived from research on cognitive responses, Firmenich’s unique ScentMove tool provides a template for verbalization of emotions and enables the evaluation of feelings elicited by odours and fragrances.

图4 评估感情。基于对认知反应的研究，芬美意独有的ScentMove工具为情绪的语言化提供了模板，并能够评估由气味和香水引起的感受。

New applications for wellbeing

健康的新应用

The scientific investigation of our oldest sense is continuing to yield many surprises, whether to do with well-being, the development of newborn children, or how individuals interact in society. Despite the pace of discovery in the past two decades, the recent observations of anosmia in some people who have contracted COVID-19, and questions surrounding its broader impact on their mental and physical health, have highlighted how much we still have to discover about the human biology of smell and taste. This has sparked a new wave of research into the role of the olfactory system, odorant receptors, and even the nasal microbiome as possible diagnostic indicators or therapeutic targets for the onset of human diseases12.

对我们最古老的感觉的科学研究继续产生许多惊喜，无论是与幸福有关，新生儿的发育，还是个人在社会中的互动方式。尽管在过去二十年中发现的速度很快，但最近对一些COVID-19感染者嗅觉缺失的观察，以及围绕其对身心健康的更广泛影响的问题，都突显了我们对人类嗅觉和味觉生物学的了解还有很多需要发现。这引发了一波新的研究浪潮，研究嗅觉系统、气味受体，甚至是鼻腔微生物群作为人类疾病发病的可能诊断指标或治疗靶点的作用。

Firmenich’s purpose goes beyond delighting the senses. Exploration of these frontiers of science allows us to generate sweet or savoury tastes without sugar or with less salt, to enhance sensations such as coolness, or modulate bitterness; and discover how to improve fragrance formulations by counteracting odour adaptation/habituation, or provide targeted malodour control. In recent years, this research has yielded innovative and sustainable applications that enhance wellbeing, including by supporting sanitation, sugar or salt reduction. Through our research centres, we are investigating how odour impacts our emotional and mental health. This global network also allows us to examine why and how the same tastes and smells may evoke different responses in different contexts and cultures so that we can design solutions tailored for specific markets.

芬美意的目标不仅仅是愉悦感官。对这些科学前沿的探索使我们能够制造出无糖或少盐的甜味或咸味，以增强凉爽或调节苦味等感觉;并发现如何通过对抗气味适应/习惯来改善香水配方，或提供有针对性的气味控制。近年来，这项研究已经产生了创新和可持续的应用，可以改善健康，包括支持卫生、减少糖或盐。通过我们的研究中心，我们正在调查气味如何影响我们的情绪和心理健康。这个全球网络还使我们能够研究相同的味道和气味在不同的背景和文化中为什么会引起不同的反应，以及如何引起不同的反应，以便我们能够为特定市场设计量身定制的解决方案。

Firmenich is researching how smells can affect someone’s emotions and mental state.

芬美意正在研究气味如何影响人的情绪和精神状态。

A credible legacy of scientific innovation and collaboration, as well as a track record of responsible business, has guided Firmenich’s path for more than 125 years. Rigorous and collaborative multidisciplinary research on olfaction, extending from molecules to perception, is paving the way for new generations of safe and renewable ingredients that benefit consumers and can enhance wellbeing.

125年多来，芬美意一直秉承着科学创新与合作的优良传统，以及负责任的经营记录。从分子到感知，对嗅觉进行了严格的多学科合作研究，为新一代的安全和可再生成分的开发铺平了道路，使消费者受益，并能增强健康。

Our research aims to connect the dots between the signal induced by a fragrance molecule, the activation of a receptor, and individual physiological and emotional responses. By understanding each step in the process and their interlinkages, as scientists we are striving for greater understanding of the human body and the human experience.

我们的研究旨在将香味分子诱导的信号、受体的激活以及个体的生理和情绪反应联系起来。通过了解过程中的每一步及其相互联系，作为科学家，我们正在努力更好地了解人体和人类体验。

References

1. Xu, L. et al. Science 368, eaaz5390(2020).

2. Pfister, P. et al. Curr. Biol. 30,2574–2587.e6 (2020).

3. Gill, J. V. et al. Neuron 108, 382–393.e5 (2020).

4. Li, B. et al. PLoS Genet. 18, e1009564(2022).

5. Rowe, T. B. & Shepherd, G. M. J.Comp. Neurol. 524, 471–495 (2016).

6. Bender, G., Hummel, T., Negoias,S. & Small, D. M. Behav. Neurosci. 123,481–489 (2009).

7. McGann, J. P. Science 356, eaam7263(2017).

8. Schaal, B. Vitam. Horm. 83, 83–136(2010).

9. de Groot, J. H. B., Kirk, P.A. &Gottfried, J. A. Psychol. Sci. 32, 558–572(2021).

10. Ferdenzi, C. et al. Chem. Senses 38,175–186 (2013).

11. Pichon, A, Vuilleumier P, DelplanqueS, Sander D, Cayeux I, Porcherot C,Velazco M-I, Margot C, inventor;Firmenich SA, applicant; Fmri method for determining brain activation patterns in response to odor elicited feelings; EP3558122A1. October 30 2019.

12. Kumpitsch, C., Koskinen, K., Schöpf, V. & Moissl-Eichinger, C. BMC Biol. 17,87 (2019).

原文出处：https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-022-00164-4