On Jul 28, 10:32 am, Radium wrote:
I've asked similar questions in science newsgroups, and they think I
have an olfactory perception disorder causing me to perceive odors
differently from other humans. I don't believe this at all.

Radium,

Why don't you think that you perceive odours differently to most
others? Perhaps the same brain wiring and chemistry that gives you
the disorder you have also means that your senses aren't quite the
same as most?

And even amongst "ordinary" humans there is lots of variation in sense
of smell. For example, where I work it is useful to be able to smell
low concentrations of cyanide (as hydrogen cyanide gas). Most people
smell something like almonds. One person says he doesn't smell it,
but instead he tastes it. There is another who can't smell it at all,
and so is totally dependent on personal electronic sensors and lab
cyanide alarms to warn if something is going wrong.

Unfortunately I forget the chemical, but at a lecture I went to
(relating to smell) a tiny quantity from the front of the theatre. A
few seconds later there were people at the back who could identify
it. Soon about half the room could smell it. The rest of us never
detected it at all.

You might well know somebody who can't smell skunks - one in a
thousand people can't.

Sense of smell is also known to vary with mood. And also people that
have epilepsy sometimes experience strange smells. The way smell
works isn't well understood - there are multiple theories just for the
physical process that goes on in your nose.

So it sounds entirely reasonable to me that what smells fine to others
may sometimes smell immeasurably-foul to you. People do have
different likes and dislikes in smells and tastes for a reason.

Neil