Response to Doty 2025, predicting odor from structure is useful

2026/01/01 by Robert Pellegrino, Emily J. Mayhew, Joel D. Mainland · 1 voice · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · Neuroscience · #Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies #Insect Pheromone Research and Control #Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies

paper · doi:10.1093/chemse/bjag003

openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/02/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27

Abstract

Doty (Odors as cognitive constructs: history of odor classification and attempts to map odor percepts to physical and chemical parameters. 2025. Chem Senses 50:bjaf022) provides a thorough historical review of odor classification but underestimates recent advances in quantifying odor space. He argues that odor qualities are cognitive constructs that do not map well to physicochemical properties. While odor is indeed cognitively mediated, practical and predictive rules for olfaction exist and continue to improve. Therefore, we suggest that Doty's historical review should be read not as a eulogy for physicochemical modeling, but as a historical baseline that the field is now surpassing.

Citations

• Predicting human olfactory perception from chemical features of odor molecules
• A principal odor map unifies diverse tasks in olfactory perception
• Odors as cognitive constructs: history of odor classification and attempts to map odor percepts to physical and chemical parameters
• Leffingwell Odor Dataset
• The perception of odor pleasantness is shared across cultures

Cited by

• Response to Comments of Pellegrino et al.

Discussions

• We argue that although odor perception is cognitively mediated, so is color vision. Color perception changes with brightness, genetics, culture, and context. That didn't stop colorimetry from becoming [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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