Olfactory fatigue
inability to distinguish an odor after prolonged exposure
Olfactory fatigue, also known as odor fatigue, odor habituation, olfactory adaptation, or noseblindness, is the temporary, normal inability to distinguish a particular odor after a prolonged exposure to that airborne compound. For example, when entering a restaurant initially the odor of food is often perceived as being very strong, but after time passes the awareness of the odor normally fades to the point where the smell is not perceptible or is much weaker. After leaving the area of high odor, the sensitivity is restored with time. Anosmia is the permanent loss of the sense of smell, and is different from olfactory fatigue.
It is a term commonly used in wine tasting, where one loses the ability to smell and distinguish a wine's bouquet after sniffing at wine continuously for an extended period of time. The term is also used in the study of indoor air quality, for example, in the perception of odors from people, tobacco, and cleaning agents. Since odor detection may be an indicator that exposure to certain chemicals is occurring, olfactory fatigue can also reduce one's awareness of chemical hazard exposure.
Olfactory fatigue is an example of neural adaptation. The body becomes desensitized to stimuli to prevent the overloading of the nervous system, thus allowing it to respond to new stimuli that are 'out of the ordinary'.
Mechanism
Odorants are small molecules present in the environment that bind receptors on the surface of cells called olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs).
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