Psychophysics refers to a class of research methods and measurements used to study a perceptual system. In olfaction research, experimental psychophysics consists of behavioral tests that illuminate the relationship between odorants and the percepts they evoke. Theoretical olfactory psychophysics attempts to makes sense of these test results by constructing models that can predict or explain them. These models then constrain broader theories of olfaction (including neural mechanisms) and inform the design of experiments that probe those mechanisms. However, many potentially illuminating datasets from academia and industry that could inform or test theoretical efforts remain difficult to locate, access, and use. Models driven by previously available data have thus been only sparsely tested and are only weakly generalizable. Pyrfume is an effort to extensively curate data related to olfactory psychophysics, to transparently and automatically determine how well models make sense of this data, and to inform experimental design for olfactory research at large. It will consist of a central , research-focused database of human psychophysics research data extracted from literature, other disparate databases, and industrial sources. It will also contain complementary research data from animal models that directly address the same kinds of questions about specific stimuli, but at a neural level inaccessible to most human experiments. All of these data will be accessible via a common framework and be immediately usable for data-driven tests of competing models of olfaction in health and disease.
Smell is essential for social behavior, food enjoyment, and danger avoidance; anosmia is associated with depression, and olfactory decline is an early warning sign for neurodegenerative diseases. This project organizes understanding of human olfaction, facilitating quantification of olfactory health, disease biomarker development, and cures for olfactory disorders. Optometry and audiology are refined clinical tools that map perceptual deficits onto medical targets; this work can help advance olfactometry to the same level.
