Perceptual odor blending is influenced by chemical complexity of odorant mixtures

International audience; Perfumers and flavorists are familiar with odor blending phenomenon and often report that a minimum number of odorants has to be mixed for a good odor blend to arise. Previous studies in humans and animals suggested that a configural process could be involved in the perceptual analysis of mixtures of odorants. It has been proposed that the perceptual blending phenomenon corresponds to a configural perception of odorant mixtures. In the present study, we investigated the influence of chemical complexity on the configural perception of odorant mixtures. Six mixtures including 2 to 6 odorants as well as each unmixed odorant were assessed for their odor quality by a pane…