Gender Differences in Development and Children's Awarness of Olfaction

In the first part of my bachelor thesis I introduce some studies concerning different aspects of olfactory and their results. Most of the studies discovered that women had better olfactory achievements than men. Based on this discovery I present possible causations of the gender differences. Next I mention researches which brought me to my own study. That is the French research on human awareness and cues of odor in small children (6-10 years old), with the help of so called COBEL questionnaires. They focused on small children to investigate if the gender differences in olfaction which were found in adults, arise in puberty or before it, and whether olfaction in people changes over time. Then I mentioned a Czech research about senses and their uses in different contexts. This study tried to find out whether people prefer to use a certain sense, including smell, in certain situations.V první části práce se zabývám studiemi, které se věnovaly různým aspektům čichového vnímání a jejich výsledky. Většina z nich zjistila lepší výkony žen v úkolech zaměřených na čichové schopnosti lidí. Proto se následně věnuji možným příčinám těchto pohlavních rozdílů. Poté zmíním studie, které mě dovedli k vlastnímu výzkumu. Francouzskou studii, která zjišťovala míru využívání a uvědomování čichu u malých dětí ve věku od 6 do 10 let pomocí tzv. COBEL dotazníku. Zaměřili se na malé děti, aby zjistili, zda pohlavní rozdíly, které představují mnohé studie na dospělých, vznikají v období puberty nebo se vyskytují již před ní a zda se s rostoucím věkem nějak mění využívání čichu. A dále českou studii, která sledovala využívání jednotlivých smyslů v rozličných kontextech. Tato práce se snažila zjistit, zda lidé v některých situacích preferují různé smysly, včetně čichu.Department of General AnthropologyKatedra obecné antropologieFaculty of HumanitiesFakulta humanitních studi

Gender Differences in Development and Children's Awarness of Olfaction

In the first part of my bachelor thesis I introduce some studies concerning different aspects of olfactory and their results. Most of the studies discovered that women had better olfactory achievements than men. Based on this discovery I present possible causations of the gender differences. Next I mention researches which brought me to my own study. That is the French research on human awareness and cues of odor in small children (6-10 years old), with the help of so called COBEL questionnaires. They focused on small children to investigate if the gender differences in olfaction which were found in adults, arise in puberty or before it, and whether olfaction in people changes over time. Then I mentioned a Czech research about senses and their uses in different contexts. This study tried to find out whether people prefer to use a certain sense, including smell, in certain situations

Sex Differences in Olfactory Behavior in Namibian and Czech Children

Sex differences in olfaction are well-established, but explanations for those sex differences remain incomplete. One contributing factor could be individual- or cultural-level differences in exposure to odors. We tested whether frequent engagement with common sources of domestic odors (cooking, domestic animals, siblings) was linked to individual differences in olfactory reactivity and awareness among children in southern Namibia and also compared study populations in southern Namibia and the Czech Republic using the established Children’s Olfactory Behavior in Everyday Life (COBEL) questionnaire. We did not find any effects of engagement with odor sources on olfactory behavior, but our results were consistent with usual olfactory sex differences in that girls scored higher than boys in measures of olfactory reactivity and awareness. Further, among the Czech children (but not among the Namibian children), odor identification abilities were positively linked to COBEL scores. Our data contribute to the literature that finds that sex differences in olfactory awareness are apparent across a diverse range of cultures and age groups