Odorant confusion matrix: the influence of patient history on patterns of odorant identification and misidentification in hyposmia

• Published in: Physiology & behavior Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 595 - 602
• Main Authors: Kurtz, Daniel B, White, Theresa L, Sheehe, Paul R, Hornung, David E, Kent, Paul F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Elsevier Inc 01.03.2001; New York, NY Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Conductive olfactory loss; Confusion matrix; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Hyposmia; Information theory; Male; Middle Aged; Multidimensional scaling; Multivariate Analysis; Multivariate regression; Odorant identification; Odorants; Olfaction; Olfaction Disorders - diagnosis; Olfaction Disorders - psychology; Olfactory system and olfaction. Gustatory system and gustation; Polyposis; Psychophysics; Retrospective Studies; Smell - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Hyposmia; Olfaction; Odorant identification; Aging; Multivariate regression; Confusion matrix; Conductive olfactory loss; Multidimensional scaling; Polyposis; Information theory; Human; Investigation method; Coding; Perception; Developmental stage; Age; Multiple regression; Chemical stimulus; Principal component analysis
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00410-3

The odorant confusion matrix (OCM) is an odorant identification test in which the number of correct odorant identifications quantifies the level of olfactory function. As with other confusion matrices, the OCM reflects distortions of sensory perception as errors in identification. Previous work with the OCM suggests that, within an individual, hyposmia is associated with a stable shift in odorant perception. The current study examined whether consistent shifts in odorant perception are also characteristic of the various pathologies that lead to an olfactory loss. In a retrospective study, OCM response patterns for 135 hyposmic patients were fit into a five-dimensional space in which the distances between subjects reflected the dissimilarities between their OCM response patterns. Multivariate regression was performed relating position in the five-dimensional space to each of 11 factors representing 33 demographic and medical history variables. One factor, named congestion (gathering the variables of past polyposis, current polyposis, and current nasal obstruction due to swelling), was significantly indicative of patterns of responses on the OCM, independent of the level of hyposmia. These data suggest that conductive olfactory loss may be associated with alterations in odorant perception, which are reflected in consistent odorant confusions. Such alterations in perception may eventually serve as a basis for a clinical test to provide differential diagnoses as to the sources of olfactory losses.