The normal perception of odour quality is poorly understood, so formulating
meaningful tests of olfaction is difficult. While tests of odour discrimin
ation and odour detection threshold have helped quantify olfactory dysfunct
ion, there are not yet predictive relationships between sensitivity to part
icular odours and particular forms of olfactory dysfunction. Using 11 commo
nly encountered odours, 20 normosmics performed similarity ratings of odour
pairs. Multidimensional scaling, a standard behavioural sciences data anal
ysis method, was used to explore the perceptual relationships between the o
dours based on their pair-wise similarity ratings. Smell maps were created
for each individual as was a common or archetypal map which indicated a com
monality in individuals' odour perception, far greater than chance alone (P
< 10(-6)). A preliminary analysis of four hyposmics suggests that they do
not conform to the normosmic archetype. Future studies assessing the relati
onship between odours in the archetype should improve the selection of odou
rs to be included in tests of odour discrimination.