Radio Waves Offer New Hope for Improving Sense of Smell

Radio waves offer new hope for improving sense of smell

Our sense of smell is more important than we often realize. It helps us enjoy food, detect danger like smoke or gas leaks, and even affects memory and emotion.

Having radio waves beamed into our head ramps up our sense of smell

Directing radio waves at the olfactory system deep within our head seems to boost our ability to detect different smells

Radio waves amp up smell without surgery or chemicals

Our sense of smell is more important than we often realize. It helps us enjoy food, detect danger like smoke or gas leaks, and even affects our memory and emotions. Many people—especially after COVID-19, aging, or brain injury—suffer from a loss of smell. However, there are very few effective treatments, and those that exist often use strong scents or medicines that cause discomfort in patients.

Radio Waves Can Strengthen Sense of Smell

A new study introduces a safe, painless way to improve the sense of smell using radio waves. Unlike traditional treatments that rely on strong scents or medications, this noninvasive method stimulates olfactory nerves directly through a small antenna placed near the forehead.

No Sense Of Smell? Try Radio Waves

We usually associate smell with bad things, like body odors or fire or a gas leak, but a keen sense of smell helps us enjoy food and other pleasures in life. Many things cause loss of smell; aging is number one, but also brain injuries and loss of smell was a common complaint about COVID-19 infections. It's not a life-threatening condition, which may be why there are very few effective treatments.

Radio Waves Amp Up Smell Without Surgery or Chemicals

In APL Bioengineering, researchers introduce a simple way to improve our sense of smell using radio waves, which can directly target the part of our brain responsible for smell, without causing pain. In the test, a small radio antenna was placed near volunteers' foreheads and emitted radio waves to reach the smell-related nerves deep in the brain.