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Mixture discrimination training induces durable and generalizable olfactory learning independent of odorant structure and concentration.

Xiaoyue Chang | Huibang Tan | Jiehui Niu | Kaiqi Yuan | Rui Chen | Wen Zhou
eLife | 2026

Previously, we showed that adult human olfaction retains plasticity in the unilateral processing of molecular chirality (Feng and Zhou, 2019). Using a similar unilateral discrimination protocol across three experiments with human adults (n = 96; 1295 sessions), we now reveal distinct patterns of specificity, generalization, and persistence in olfactory learning, independent of adaptation or task difficulty. Training with binary odor mixtures at varying ratios consistently produced durable gains that transferred across nostrils and generalized to novel mixtures differing in both structure and perceptual quality. Conversely, training with odor enantiomers or concentration differences yielded neither transfer nor generalization, and concentration discrimination learning was short-lived. These results indicate that mixture configural quality is a distinct olfactory attribute from chirality or relative concentration, and that discrimination learning engages plasticity at different stages of olfactory processing depending on the task-relevant attribute. Moreover, they identify mixture discrimination training as a promising strategy for rehabilitating smell loss and cultivating olfactory expertise.

Pubmed ID: 41627872

Research resources used in this publication

None found

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Associated grants

  • Agency: Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China,
    Id: 2021ZD0204200
  • Agency: National Natural Science Foundation of China,
    Id: 32430043
  • Agency: Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,
    Id: E4EQ5001X2

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