Attention all campers! You no longer have to bother dipping your bunkmate’s hand in warm water in an attempt to make him pee in the bed. If you want to know how to terrorize that kid who picked on you on the kickball field, all you have to do is get inside his dreams. Through his nose.

German researchers have found that sleepers exposed to an unpleasant smell will have negative dreams. The opposite is also true. When subjects were exposed to the smell of roses, their dreams were predominantly positive. These olfactory observers used rotten eggs in their study, but we are sure that a stinky gym sock, left perched on the pillow of your enemy, would work just as well. While we’re fairly certain that the researchers didn’t plan to have their findings used in this manner, there are always unintended (and sometimes dastardly) consequences of scientific breakthroughs.

Because our sense of smell involves such a sensitive and neurologically complex function, and because it’s so powerful in its influence on our behavior, it’s not surprising at all that so many scientists have studied the effect of different scents on emotion, memory, appetite, energy, and sexual arousal. The sense of smell is known to be closely linked to the same area of the brain which handles memory and behavior, which is why a familiar scent can trigger a vivid memory or feeling about the first time you got a whiff of it. Scientists have also found that our sense of smell intensifies when we sense a dangerous smell — such as a fire — sparking our brain’s fight-or-flight response.

It certainly seems logical that there would be a strong connection between smell and stimulation, but you might be shocked to find out what the most sexually “intoxicating” fragrances actually are.

To test the effect a scent has on arousal, Dr. Alan Hirsch, a nationally recognized smell and taste expert and the founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, chose 30 pleasant odors and hypothesized that these enticing scents would stimulate more than just the nose. He measured penile blood flow while exposing men whose eyes were covered to various scents. The winner, by a nose, was lavender and pumpkin pie, with a 40 percent average increase in blood flow to the penis. The smell of doughnuts and black licorice came in a close second with a 31.5 percent increase in penile blood flow Cranberry finished dead last, so you may want to leave that off the seduction menu.

Hirsch also studied the effect of odors on women and measured their sexual response. The winners: the combo of Good & Plenty candy and cucumber with a 13 percent increase in vaginal blood flow. Baby powder tied with a lucky 13 percent boost. Pumpkin pie and lavender also seemed to stimulate the ladies, coming in second at 11 percent.

Now, you’re probably ready to radically alter your choice of cologne and aftershave, right? After all, who needs Chanel No. 5 or Boucheron pour Homme, when it’s apparently so much more provocative to slather a hunk of pumpkin pie across your neck or daub a melting Twizzler behind your ears?

It’s said that humans are able to distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules. We do this by simply breathing in. That whiff of air goes up the nostrils and makes its way to the roof of the nasal cavity where it hits a tiny area called the olfactory epithelium. The olfactory epithelium contains millions of olfactory receptor neurons. On the surface of these neurons are odorant receptors that pass the smell information to the olfactory bulb (just underneath the front of your brain) and then on to the olfactory cortex in the temporal lobe of your brain.

Confused? Well, so are scientists. You see, humans have only about 400 odorant receptors on the surface of those sensory neurons. The otherwise humble mouse has approximately 1,200! Yet we olfactorily challenged humans can still detect thousands of odors.

Because the power of human sense of smell is so greatly underrated, the great and profound enigmas of scratching-and-sniffing remain to be solved.

隊(duì)員們注意了!想讓你同寢室的伙伴尿床嗎?這次再也不用把他的手放進(jìn)溫水里了。想知道怎樣恐嚇球場(chǎng)上作弄你的家伙嗎?睡覺時(shí)讓他聞臭味就行了。

德國研究人員已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn),如果臥室里有難聞的氣味人入睡后就會(huì)作惡夢(mèng),反之亦然。當(dāng)人們?cè)诔錆M了玫瑰芬芳的地方睡覺,他們夢(mèng)里絕大多數(shù)的人或事都是積極樂觀的。嗅覺研究人員在研究中使用了臭雞蛋。但有一點(diǎn)我們敢肯定,將運(yùn)動(dòng)后穿過的臭襪子掛在你仇敵的枕邊也會(huì)奏效。雖然我們相當(dāng)肯定研究人員并不打算將自己的發(fā)現(xiàn)運(yùn)用于此,但科學(xué)技術(shù)上的重大突破難免在不經(jīng)意間帶來不良后果。

大家知道嗅覺涉及到一個(gè)靈敏的神經(jīng)方面的復(fù)雜功能,而且它左右著我們?nèi)粘５男袨榕e止,所以我們對(duì)眾多科學(xué)家們研究不同氣味對(duì)人的情緒、記憶力、食欲、精神和性興奮所產(chǎn)生的效果就不足為奇了。我們都知道嗅覺和我們大腦中控制記憶和行為舉止的部位有著密切聯(lián)系,這就是為什么熟悉的氣味能使我們回想起第一次聞到它時(shí)那生動(dòng)的畫面或那份感覺�？茖W(xué)家們同樣發(fā)現(xiàn),聞到一種危險(xiǎn)的氣味時(shí)我們的嗅覺會(huì)增強(qiáng),例如聞到火味,我們大腦會(huì)做出應(yīng)激反應(yīng)。

氣味和刺激有著密切聯(lián)系,這一點(diǎn)好像似乎還合乎邏輯,但你可能會(huì)感到震驚,因?yàn)榭茖W(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了促使男女達(dá)到性興奮的氣味。

為了測(cè)試氣味對(duì)性刺激的效果,美國知名的嗅覺和味覺專家、芝加哥嗅覺與味覺治療與研究基金會(huì)創(chuàng)始人艾倫· 赫希博士選用了30種悅?cè)说臍馕恫⑻岢鲆粋�(gè)假設(shè):這些誘人的氣味不僅僅對(duì)鼻子有刺激作用。赫希博士將一些男人的眼睛蒙上,讓他們?nèi)ヂ劯鞣N各樣的氣味,與此同時(shí)測(cè)量了他們陰莖的血流量。結(jié)果氣味中的獲勝者是熏衣草和南瓜餅,聞到它們時(shí)被測(cè)試者們的陰莖血流量平均增加了40%。油炸圈餅和黑甘草的氣味位居第二,被測(cè)試者陰莖血流量增加了31.5%。蔓越橘效果最差,最后被淘汰。

赫希博士也研究了氣味對(duì)女人的影響并測(cè)出了她們的性反應(yīng)。這次氣味中的佼佼者是:糖和黃瓜的混合氣味,被測(cè)試者陰道的血流量增加了13%。嬰兒爽身粉的氣味也達(dá)到了前者的效果。南瓜餅和熏衣草的氣味位居第二,它們似乎對(duì)女士也有性刺激作用,被測(cè)試者陰道血流量增加了11%。

現(xiàn)在,你可能準(zhǔn)備好從根本上改變你對(duì)科隆香水和須后水的選擇了吧?當(dāng)你在自己脖子上厚厚地涂上一層南瓜派或在耳后涂上正在融化的Twizzler(美國的一種糖),這顯然是些煽情物,畢竟有了這么多的刺激物,誰還需要香奈兒5號(hào)女士香水或?qū)氃婟埬惺肯闼��?

據(jù)說人類能夠區(qū)別萬種以上的不同氣味。我們通常是將這些氣味吸入體內(nèi)。被吸入的氣體升入鼻孔,一路來到鼻腔的頂部,在那里它遇到了一小塊地方名為嗅覺上皮細(xì)胞。嗅覺上皮細(xì)胞包含了幾百萬個(gè)嗅覺神經(jīng)元。神經(jīng)元表面是氣味接受器,它可將嗅覺信息傳遞給嗅球,接著依次傳遞到大腦顳葉(位于大腦外側(cè))的嗅覺皮層中。

你是否對(duì)此感到困惑不解?別擔(dān)心,科學(xué)家們也一樣。要知道,人類的這些感官神經(jīng)元上僅有400個(gè)氣味接受器。而卑賤的鼠類竟有約1,200個(gè)。然而嗅覺受到挑戰(zhàn)的人類仍能察覺到數(shù)千種氣味。

由于人類嗅覺的能力被大大低估,偉大而意義深遠(yuǎn)的嗅覺之迷還有待揭開。