The Perception of Smell and Taste as a Research Area of Clinical Psychology

Abstract

In recent decades, an interdisciplinary research area studying the scientific foundations and applicational aspects of olfactory and taste perception has established itself. Known as Chemical Senses Research, this research is detached from the field of psychology in general, especially clinical psychology. Physiologists, neuroanatomists, behavior researchers, food technicians, biologists, zoologists, and a few psychologists work in this area on such varying questions as the discovery of receptors on the nasal membrane cilia or the clinical problems of patients with taste or olfactory disorders. And while psychophysics or the neuropsychology of audio-visual perception plays a central role in clinical psychology — the work done in the area of neuropsychological rehabilitation of patients with field-of-vision lesions comes to mind — studies of altered smell and taste have so far played a secondary, practically insignificant role.