Smell: No Longer the “Cinderella” of the Senses
As child growing up in Alabama, Theresa White, Ph.D., learned about the history of the state and the lives of many of its most famous residents. There is one story in particular that stands out in White’s memory, though. It is that of Helen Keller. A childhood illness left Keller without the ability to see or hear. Yet, as White discovered when she herself was very young, Keller went on to enjoy success as an author, lecturer and disability rights advocate, relying solely on her remaining three senses. That revelation began for White what has been a lifelong fascination with how people think and how they process the world. It ultimately led her to study olfaction, or sense of smell.
Today, in addition to her work as a professor and chair in the Department of Psychology at Le Moyne College, White researches learning, memory and sensory psychology as they relate to the senses of smell and taste. As an outgrowth of that interest, she has also completed studies related to the emotion of disgust. Olfaction is, she acknowledges, sometimes underappreciated. (Her graduate school adviser called it “the Cinderella of the senses.”) White certainly does not see it that way. Her research has allowed her to travel the globe, to make meaningful contributions to a field that is important to her, and collaborate with incredibly bright people, many of whom have been her students.
“In all of the research projects I undertake, the fundamental question I am asking is: How do we think, how do we recall things, and how that shapes who we are as individuals?” she says. “I’m just using smell to do that … It’s a fun way to explore those overarching ideas and to figure out who we are.”
White is currently in the midst of three complex projects related to olfaction. The first is the replication of a study initially published by Judy Mennella, Ph.D., of the Monnell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pa. It examines the ways in which people’s preference for sugar impacts the food they choose. The second is an examination of olfactory working memory that she is working on with Jonas Olofsson, Ph.D. They are investigating whether it is easier for people to remember a series of distinct smells if they are broken up into small groups, as has been proven to be the case in recalling long sequences of numbers. The third is an investigation that she is undertaking with Sarah Spinelli, Ph.D., of the University of Florence. into people’s aversion to or preference for sweet flavor, and how that relates to whether or not they drink alcoholic beverages and, if so, which ones. White hopes that the latter study will help advance treatment for people living with alcoholism. In addition to these specific projects, she is intrigued overall by the capacity of the nerves that process olfactory information to regenerate themselves. She and many of her colleagues from around the world hope that the ability of those nerves to repair themselves holds promise for other parts of the human Central Nervous System.
For White, research is not just something about which she is personally passionate. It is a crucial component of a Jesuit education. She has witnessed firsthand the ways in which research fosters critical-thinking skills and relationships, both of which help students to solve problems and see things from a variety of perspectives. It is “part of the process of reflective discernment that helps young people to become whomever they are going to be,” she says. What’s more, White firmly believes that when you show a student that you see something as valuable, they come to see it as valuable as well. That is why she is committed to publishing research with her students whenever possible and she is fond of offering them these words of encouragement: “Do some science. Pay attention.”
