Steven D. Munger, PhD
Steven D. Munger, PhD, professor and co-director of research in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, was awarded a $2.6 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to study how smell function varies under normal physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The project, titled “Intensive longitudinal assessment of human olfaction,” will help to establish clear normative ranges for smell function (analogous with what is known for many biomarkers such as blood pressure or cholesterol levels), an essential step if smell testing is to become a regular part of healthcare.
Dr. Munger and his team will use a new smell test that employs a novel adaptive algorithm developed by them to assess smell function on a daily and monthly basis in several groups. The study will not only examine how smell function changes in an age-, sex- and race-diverse population of nominally healthy individuals, as well as for people with a post-viral loss of smell or with Parkinson’s disease (which is typically accompanied by smell dysfunction) but will also measure the impact of pregnancy and the menstrual cycle on smell function.
Smell disorders such as anosmia (the inability to smell) or parosmia (distorted smell) affect many millions of people in the U.S. alone. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated effects on smell, has only increased this prevalence. These disorders impact health and quality of life by reducing safety (the detection of fire, spoiled food), disrupting nutritious eating (as flavor is lost and food becomes less palatable), and increasing incidence of anxiety and depression. Smell disorders are also associated with increased frailty, decreased lifespan, and diseases of the nervous system such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. Even so, most people never have their sense of smell tested, and effective therapies for smell disorders are few. Dr. Munger’s research program, which he recently relocated to the UVA School of Medicine, is focused on understanding how people detect odors with the goal of improving diagnostics and treatments for smell disorders.
This new project is part of an ongoing collaboration with John Hayes, PhD, of Penn State University, an expert on human sensory evaluation and psychophysics. UVA faculty Jose Mattos, MD, MPH, in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, and W. Alex Dalrymple, MD, in the Department of Neurology, are also collaborators on the study.
Filed Under: Research