[Do blind persons have a better sense of smell than normal sighted people?].

Functional disorders of sense organs may intensify the remaining senses. It is presumed that blind persons do not only hear better and have an intensified tactile sense but also have a stronger sense of smell. Better hearing ability was demonstrated by auditory evoked potentials. We investigated the sense of smell of blind persons by subjective tests (Sniffin' sticks: threshold, discrimination and identification) and for the first time also by objective tests (olfactory evoked potentials and trigeminal evoked potentials) and compared the results with the smelling ability of normal sighted persons by pair matching. Moreover, the investigated persons judged their performance via a questionnaire. The subjective test showed neither differences in the peripheral function nor in the central function between both groups. The amplitudes and latencies of the evoked potentials of vanillin, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide were also not different. Blind persons tried unasked to identify the smell given in the discrimination test and thought themselves to be better in smelling. For the first time the smelling ability of blind people was compared with normal sighted people by objective test methods. Neither with subjective nor with objective methods differences were found.