Numb to the Taste: Dental Anesthesia and Taste Loss
The 7 Fragrance Trends Dominating 2025: The Future Is More Than a Scent
From interactive storytelling and sculptural packaging to the rise of indie perfumers and culturally rich narratives, WTSA’s Mindy Yang highlights the industry’s shift towards more personalized and emotionally resonant creations.
Discover how home scenting is becoming a key aspect of wellness and interior design, and how perfumers are finally gaining recognition as the artists behind these olfactory masterpieces.
Read the full article here: The 7 Fragrance Trends Dominating 2025: The Future Is More Than a Scent.
Hate cilantro or anchovies? Evolutionary science could explain why
Complex factors influence our food preferences and aversions. Evolutionary biology, genetics, personal experiences, and cultural backgrounds all come into play.
The First Thing to Go: Smell, Emotion, and the Invisible Onset of Parkinson’s
On April 17, 2025, is so important. At last, it centers emotions—so often pushed to the margins—bringing in experts, patients, and caregivers to discuss the full human experience of Parkinson’s. It’s not just about what you do. It’s about how you feel.
The Botanical Buzz: 6 Emerging Wellness Trends We’re Watching in 2025
Mindy Yang shares six standout wellness trends that you’re likely to see popping up on store shelves, in your favorite wellness influencers’ routines, and maybe even in your own kitchen cabinet this year.
Self-Administered Smell Test May Detect Risk For Alzheimer’s
A self-administered smell test taken at home could help identify older adults who may be at risk for Alzheimer’s disease
PRP Treatment Injects Hope for People Suffering From Smell Loss
A lasting treatment for smell loss from Covid may be in a patient’s blood. Clinicians are reporting PRP treatments offer a whiff of hope for people with smell loss.
Recipe for Recovery: Cooking School Therapy Shows Promising Results for Patients with Smell Loss
Participating in a structured cooking school program may significantly improve olfactory function in patients suffering from smell loss.
Taste and Our Oral Microbiome
The human body is a host to several microbiomes, or communities of microscopic organisms, and every taste experience is influenced especially by the most stable of them all - the one found just past your lips.
Call to Action: Your Voice Matters in Advancing Smell and Taste Testing
Together, we can turn personal challenges into powerful advocacy that improves healthcare for millions of Americans living with smell and taste disorders.
The Lasting Impact of Scent Marketing: From Casinos to Retail Stores
One of the earliest and most influential studies on the effects of scent on consumer behavior took place in a Las Vegas casino.
Beyond Sight and Sound: The Rise of Taste-Enabled Virtual Reality
For years, virtual reality has been a mostly visual affair—a world of hyperrealistic landscapes, immersive gaming, and metaverse meetups that promise to feel real. But taste, touch, and smell have remained elusive.
Beyond the Calorie: Why Pleasure, Taste, and Nutrient Balance Matter More Than Counting
If you’ve ever stood in line at a café debating between the healthy grain bowl and the irresistible pastry, you know the drill. One option feels like self-care; the other, like sin. But what if I told you that the most sustainable path to health isn’t about restriction—it’s about pleasure?
The Scent Quest: How Givaudan is Making Memory a Game on Roblox
There’s a new frontier in gaming, and it doesn’t just rely on the usual dopamine rush of leveling up or hoarding digital gold. This one is driven by something more primal—your sense of smell. Yes, smell. In a bold, unexpected move, fragrance giant Givaudan has launched Guardians of Memories on Roblox, a game where players restore lost memories through the power of scent. Think Zelda, but instead of wielding a sword, you’re sniffing your way to victory.
February 27th is Anosmia awareness day
Check out this special online presentation in honor of 2025 Anosmia Awareness Day, where leading experts explore the latest advancements in diagnosing, treating, and managing smell and taste disorders.
Antioxidants in fruits and flowers seem to counteract harmful effects of microplastics, study shows
Anthocyanins in nuts, fruits and vegetables seem to lessen harmful effects of microplastics on reproductive systems
Come to Your Senses
Sensory wellness is often overlooked by consumer packaged goods manufacturers. In this “Expert Opinion” piece in Happi magazine, WTSA Board member, Amy Marks-McGee encourages consumer packaged goods manufacturers and fragrance and flavor suppliers to recognize the importance of nurturing, optimizing and expanding sensory experiences.
Create A Sensory Self-Love Ritual
Valentine’s Day is often framed as a celebration of romance, but what if we reframed it as a day to nurture the most important relationship of all—the one we have with ourselves? Love, after all, begins from within. And what better way to honor self-love than through the senses—taste, smell, and the rituals that nourish us from the inside out?
How Certain Smells Unlock Our Deepest Memories
Smell has an uncanny ability to transport us through time, resurrecting moments with a clarity that other senses struggle to match. But why does this happen? And why do some scents summon entire chapters of our past while others barely leave an imprint?
The Mechanism of Hypoarousal and Depression: A Neurosensory Perspective
From a neuroscientific and sensory perspective, hypoarousal is a state of diminished physiological and psychological activation. It is often linked to depressive disorders, dissociation, and even trauma-related conditions, where the body and mind retreat into a low-energy state as a survival mechanism. Unlike the hyperactive, anxious distress often associated with depression, hypoarousal presents as lethargy, emotional numbness, and cognitive slowing — what many describe as feeling “shut down” or “disconnected.”
