The olfactory system is highly plastic and susceptible to training. Systematic exposure to odors has been reported to increase olfactory receptor expression levels in rodents, as well as enhance behavioral response to odors, alter brain structure and neural processing of odors in humans. Due to an interplay between olfaction and cognitive functions several studies verified if olfactory training (OT) effects may reach beyond olfaction. However, most of the available data has been collected from adult and elderly populations. Here we present preliminary results of a study aiming to verify if OT in early-school children (n=29, aged 7-9 years, 14 females) would increase their short-term olfactory memory. Participants in the OT group received sets of four odors (rose, lemon, eucalyptol, cloves) and were asked to smell them twice a day for twelve consecutive weeks. Control group performed the same training procedure with odorless training sets. To measure short-term olfactory memory we prepared a game called “Smellory”. The came consists of a set of six pairs of odors, all stored in brown glass jars in odorant-soaked cotton balls. Participants’ task was to select two jars from the set, compare their content and decide if the odors are matching. The task has been repeated until all six pairs have been found. Two equivalent sets were performed and distributed randomly before and after OT to rule out a possible learning effect. Our analyses revealed that the number of trials needed to complete the task was lower after OT (M=23.82±4.55) as compared with the baseline score (M=26.73±2.25). Contrary, in the control group the number of tries required to finish the task increased between baseline (M=24.22±1.76) and post-intervention measurement (M=30.06±3.56). These results suggest that systematic exposure to odors may enhance higher olfactory functions like olfactory memory.

This work was supported by National Science Centre in Poland (#2020/37/B/HS6/00288 awarded to AO)