Quantifying Olfactory Perception : Mapping Olfactory Perception Space by Using Multidimensional Scaling and Self-Organizing Maps

The role of higher cortical regions in olfactory perception is not very well understood. Scientists must choose their stimuli based largely on their personal experience. There is no guarantee that the chosen stimuli are able to span ''olfactory perception space'' appropriately.A primary reason for that is there seems to be no known physical continuum for odor perception (akin to wavelengths of light for color perception). Hence it cannot even be assumed that there is a metric describing the olfactory perception space.An olfactory perception database has been projected onto the nearest high-dimensional Euclidean space using a multidimensional scaling approach. This yields an independent Euclidean interpretation of odor perception, whether the space is metric or not. Self-organizing maps have been applied to produce two-dimensional maps of the Euclidean approximation of olfactory perception space.This report will give a comprehensive look at the basic idea of this mapping approach and the application onto a psychophysical odor perception database