CN114689792A

CN114689792A - Human olfactory work memory testing method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114689792A
Application number: CN202011584905.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 叶铮; 李澄宇; 李达; 徐碧蔓
Original assignee: Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences
Current assignee: Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences
Priority date: 2020-12-28
Filing date: 2020-12-28
Publication date: 2022-07-01
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-28
Also published as: CN114689792B

Abstract

The invention provides a human olfactory working memory testing method and a device thereof, wherein the device comprises an odor supply system and a testing system; the scent supply system includes: the control system comprises an air pump, an air bottle and an odor diffusion cover communicated with the air bottle or the air pump; the test system comprises: an operating assembly, a signal processing system. The invention also provides an application of the device for testing the human olfactory working memory and a method for testing the human olfactory working memory.

Description

Human olfactory work memory testing method and device

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the field of animal sensory test, and particularly relates to a method and a device for testing human olfactory work memory.

Background

The human brain processes hundreds of millions of various information each day, including various information from the visual, auditory, olfactory senses, and so on. Much of the information stays only briefly in the brain, and when the brain finds important, interesting information, it is stored in the brain for a longer time to recall when needed later. Therefore, the working memory of the human brain is worthy of research and exploration.

Human working memory, vision and hearing are studied more deeply, and more sophisticated evaluation tools are available in some medical sites for qualitative and quantitative analysis. However, the working memories of human senses of smell, taste and touch are neglected, and are rarely studied, and research means, research tools and qualitative and quantitative methods are lacked in the field.

At present, some memory research devices are mainly used for researching animals. For example, there are mouse training devices in the art comprising a case having a side wall provided with an aperture communicating with the outside; the mouse body fixing device and the head fixing device which are positioned in the box body can fix the mouse and move in a certain position; a ventilation tube inserted into the case for giving a smell in a process of training the mouse; the vent pipe is communicated with an air supply device positioned outside the box body; a water pipe inserted into the case; the port outside the box body of the water pipe is communicated with a water supply device positioned outside the box body; and the movable water nozzle system is positioned in the box body and is communicated with the box body inner port of the water pipe. Aiming at the behavior characteristics of the mouse, the olfactory-based working memory behavior training in the mouse can be divided into the following steps: and (3) stopping water supply, training to lick water after two different odors, and independently learning.

However, the mouse automated training apparatus is limited in that it is only suitable for small laboratory animals such as mice, and is not suitable for humans. Firstly, a human being is a visual animal and is powerful in vision, and the olfaction ability is greatly different from that of an animal such as a mouse, so that the human being needs longer contact time and larger gas quantity for smell in the design of an experimental paradigm; the odor used for animals such as mice in odor directly to humans causes subjective discomfort, so that it is necessary to select a subjectively pleasant odor acceptable to humans. Also, odors suitable for olfaction testing need to have certain characteristics, be acceptable to humans, and also need to be human-compatible in resolution, and not as familiar and classic odors to avoid background interference with working memory testing.

In view of the fact that no olfactory working memory test method meeting the characteristics of human has been disclosed in the prior art, there is a need in the art to develop an olfactory working memory test method for human and a device for matching the method.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a method and a device for testing human olfactory working memory.

In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for human olfactory working memory testing, the apparatus comprising an olfactory delivery system and a testing system; the scent supply system includes: the device comprises a control system, an air pump, N air cylinders and a smell diffusion cover communicated with the air cylinders or the air pump; the air pump outputs air to the air bottle or the odor diffusion cover; the gas cylinder is independently packaged with different smells; the control system starts or stops the output of the smell in the gas cylinder or the air of the air pump to the diffusion cover; the scent diffusion barrier administers scent or air to a subject; wherein N is a natural number of 3-30; the test system comprises: an operating component which is operated (such as a key press) by the subject to feed back the judgment of the scent; a signal processing system that processes information based on the subject's manipulation.

In a preferred embodiment, the test system further includes: and the display screen is used for displaying the smell supply state and prompting the test requirement to the subject in real time.

In another preferred example, the apparatus further includes: a box body which is of a non-closed structure; in the smell supply system, the control system, the air pump and the air bottle are positioned in the box body; and the odor diffusion cover communicated with the gas cylinder or the gas pump is positioned outside the box body.

In another preferred example, one of the upper side, the front side and the left and right sides of the box body is an open structure, and the other of the left and right sides is closed, but is provided with a pore communicated with the outside.

In another preferred example, the air pumps respectively supply air to the air inlets of the air bottles through independent pipelines; preferably, the air pump outputs air to the N air cylinders, directly to the odor diffusion cover or to the outside through a joint of 1 rotation (N +2), respectively.

In another preferred example, the control system includes: a control panel, a valve; the valve is positioned on a vent pipe (a smell vent pipe) between the air pump and the air bottle or a vent pipe (an air vent pipe) between the air pump and the smell diffusion cover; the control panel is operatively connected (e.g., by an electrical circuit) to the valve to control the opening or closing of the valve; preferably, the valve is a two-way valve.

In another preferred example, when the voltages between the control board and the valve are different, a voltage regulating device is further arranged between the control board and the valve. For example, when the voltage of the control plate is smaller than that of the valve, the amplifying plate is arranged to amplify the voltage.

In another preferred example, the air pump outputs air to the air cylinders and further to the odor diffusion cover, and the pipeline is independent corresponding to each air cylinder.

In another preferred example, the pipeline of the air output by the air pump to the odor diffusion cover is independent.

In another preferred embodiment, the control board is connected to a computer system, and programmed control and information recording are realized through a computer program.

In another preferred example, the gas cylinder comprises a gas inlet and a gas outlet, the gas pump supplies gas to the gas inlet of the gas cylinder, and the gas outlet outputs the smell to the smell diffusion cover through a separate pipeline.

In another preferred embodiment, the odor diffusion mask is a non-closed mask that delivers odor or air to the olfactory organ (nostrils) of the subject, allowing the subject to come into proper contact with the gas while facilitating gas diffusion; preferably the odour diffusion mask is a semi-open face mask.

In another preferred example, the apparatus further includes: the head fixing device is used for placing the head of the subject.

In another preferred example, the odor diffusion cover is fixed on the head fixing device, and when the subject places the head, the odor diffusion cover is matched with the olfactory organ of the subject;

in another preferred embodiment, the test system further comprises a display screen, and the head fixing device corresponds to the display screen in position, and when the subject places the head, an image of the display screen can be observed.

In another aspect of the invention, the application of the device for testing human olfactory working memory is provided, which is used for testing human olfactory working memory capacity, human odor sensitivity and brain cognitive state or brain area function analysis related to olfactory memory; or preparing an instrument for carrying out human olfactory working memory capacity test, odor sensitivity test or brain cognitive state or brain region function analysis related to olfactory memory.

In a preferred embodiment, the human olfactory working memory test is a test that is not directed to diagnosing a disease; i.e. non-diagnostic applications.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for testing human olfactory working memory, comprising: (1) providing said device for testing human olfactory working memory; (2) and (3) carrying out human olfactory working memory test by using the device in the step (1) to obtain a test result.

In a preferred embodiment, the method of (2) comprises: the subject wears an odor diffusion mask, and the following steps are carried out by using the control system: and (3) an encoding stage: (a) closing the air output of the air pump, and opening the output of the smell in any air bottle to the diffusion cover, (b) closing the air bottle, and opening the output of the air pump to the diffusion cover; changing the opened gas cylinder, repeating the steps (a) to (b), and presenting various smells to the subject; wherein the step (b) of repeating the steps (a) to (b) to the last time is also referred to as a "delay period" (which does not release odor); and (3) identification: and opening the output of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover, requiring the testee to judge the odor, and operating the operation assembly to feed back the result, and processing information through the signal processing system.

In another preferred example, in the encoding stage, the (a) - (b) steps are repeated 1-9 times (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 times), so that 2-10 (e.g. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) odors are presented to the subject in the encoding stage.

In another preferred example, (a) the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 2-15 seconds; preferably 3-10 seconds (more preferably 3-8 seconds, such as 4, 5, 6, 7 seconds).

In another preferred example, (b) the output time of the air pump to the diffusion cover is 1-6 seconds; preferably 1.5-8 seconds (more preferably 1.5-6 seconds, such as 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds).

In another preferred example, in the identification stage, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 3-12 seconds; preferably 3.5 to 9 seconds (more preferably 4 to 8 seconds, such as 5, 6, 7 seconds).

In another preferred example, the smell or air flux is 1.5-3L/min of ventilation capacity of the air outlet.

In another preferred example, in the recognition stage, the subject gives a judgment of "yes" or "no" by judging whether the odor output in the stage appears in the encoding stage, and operates the operation member to feed back the result.

In another preferred example, the signal processing system judges whether the testee is accurate or not according to the actual smell of the gas cylinder, if the smell which is appeared is accurately identified as 'hit', if the smell which is not appeared is judged to be 'false alarm', the type number of the smell which is appeared in the coding stage is taken as 'memory load', and the working memory capacity (K) is calculated:

the working memory capacity is (hit rate-false alarm rate) x memory load.

In another preferred embodiment, the analysis of the "encoding stage-recognition stage" is repeated 2-30 times (preferably 3-20 times, such as 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 times) to count the average value of the working memory capacity.

In another preferred embodiment, after completing a working memory capacity calculation, the method further comprises the following steps of analyzing, increasing the number of odor species presented to the subject, and carrying out the working memory capacity; preferably, 1 to 2 kinds of odors are added in increments.

In another preferred embodiment, the odor comprises a compound selected from the group consisting of: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a carisson odor, a linalyl formate and ambroxol odor, a lemon odor, a cucumber odor, a marine odor, a chocolate odor, a blueberry odor, a lavender odor, a rose odor, an osmanthus odor, a gardenia odor, a honey peach odor; preferably, the scent comprises a scent selected from: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a california odor, an linalyl formate odor, and an ambroxol odor.

In another preferred example, the method further comprises: enabling a subject to watch a display screen during testing, wherein the display screen displays the smell supply state and prompts the testing requirement in real time; preferably, when the encoding stage presents the odor, the display displays the image 1; the delay stage displays image 2 and the recognition stage displays image 3 when an odor is present.

In another preferred example, the scent presented to the subject is incremented by 1 for each increment of 1, e.g., 3 (load 3), 4 (load 4), 5 (load 5) in sequence.

In another preferred example, the scent presented to the subject is incremented by 1 for each increment of 1, e.g., 3 (load 3), 4 (load 4), 5 (load 5), 6 (load 6), or further increments, in sequence.

In another preferred example, the scent presented to the subject is incremented by 2 for each increment of 1, e.g., sequentially by 2 (load 2), 4 (load 4), 6 (load 6), or further increments.

In another preferred embodiment, image 1, image 2 and image 3 are significantly different images, such as different shapes, different colors or different dynamics.

Other aspects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the disclosure herein.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an olfactory working memory testing device of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a control system in a box body of the olfactory working memory testing device and connection between the control system and a valve (two-way valve).

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the control and gas regulation of an olfactory working memory testing device according to the present invention; in the figure, the thick lines represent the sum of the individual pipelines/circuits.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a single test of a working memory determination of an odor test using the apparatus of the present invention; wherein "load 3" indicates that the number of test odors was 3; the definition of other "loads" and so on.

FIG. 5 is a olfactory working memory capacity curve of subjects 1 to 3.

FIG. 6 is a olfactory working memory capacity curve of subjects 4 to 5.

Figure 7, olfactory working memory capacity curve of subject 6.

Fig. 8 and 21 are test accuracy curves for the subjects.

In fig. 1 to 3, the respective reference numerals are explained as follows:

1. a box body;

2. a gas cylinder;

3. a head fixing device;

4. an air pump; 41. a smell vent pipe; 42. an air vent pipe; 43. a tap joint; 44. a pressure dividing pipe;

5. a control system; 51. a control panel; 52. an amplification plate; 53. valves (two-way valves);

6. a scent diffusion cover;

7. controlling and displaying the operating system; 71. an operating component; 72. and a display screen.

Detailed Description

The inventor of the invention has conducted intensive research and provides a device for testing the working memory of human olfaction; the invention also provides an application of the device for testing the human olfactory working memory and a method for testing the human olfactory working memory.

Olfactory working memory testing device

The invention provides a device for testing human olfactory working memory, which comprises an odor supply system and a testing system.

The scent supply system of the present invention includes: the device comprises a control system, an air pump, N air cylinders and a smell diffusion cover communicated with the air cylinders or the air pump; the air pump outputs air to the air bottle or the odor diffusion cover; the gas cylinder is independently packaged with different smells; the control system starts or closes the output of the smell in the gas cylinder or the air of the air pump to the diffusion cover; the scent diffusion barrier administers a scent or air to a subject.

In the present invention, the air pump is not particularly limited as long as it can be adjusted to a state of delivering the air to the outside, give a suitable amount of air, and be operatively connected (effectively connected) to the ventilation pipe. The air pump can be a commercially available air pump or a self-designed air pump, and after the design and connection are carried out, the air pump can enable the odor/air output port of the air outlet of the odor diffusion cover to output a proper amount of air, for example, the ventilation volume of the air outlet is 1.5-3L/min.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, the air pump supplies air to the air inlets of the air cylinders through independent pipelines; preferably, the air pump outputs air to the N air cylinders or directly to the odor diffusion cover through a joint of 1 revolution (N +1), respectively.

As used herein, the "1-turn (N +1) -joint" refers to a device that is connected to the air pump through one pipe, and has (N +1) -pipes at the other end to divide the air output from the air pump.

In the present invention, the gas cylinder is not particularly limited, and for example, the gas cylinder generally comprises a cylinder body and a plug, which are matched and can be sealed. The manufacturing material of the bottle body is not particularly limited, and can be a transparent material, a semi-transparent material or an invisible material; preferably a see-through material is applied. The material of the bottle stopper is not particularly limited, and is preferably a material having a certain extensibility, such as cork, rubber, or a material containing cork or rubber, preferably with a sealing gasket or ring, in order to achieve a good seal with the bottle body. Preferably, two air vents are arranged on the bottle stopper, one air vent is connected with the air pump (as an air inlet), and the other air vent is connected with the odor diffusion cover (as an air outlet). That is, the air pump supplies air to the air inlet of the air cylinder, and the air outlet outputs the odor to the odor diffusion cover through a separate pipeline.

In the invention, the air output by the air pump is delivered to the air cylinders and further to the smell diffusion cover, and the pipelines are independent corresponding to each air cylinder. On the other hand, the pipeline of the air output by the air pump to the odor diffusion cover is independent. With such a design, the odors or air can be accurately distinguished without mixing or interfering with each other.

As a preferred aspect of the present invention, the control system includes: a control panel, a valve; the valve is positioned on a vent pipe (a smell vent pipe) between the air pump and the air bottle or a vent pipe (an air vent pipe) between the air pump and the smell diffusion cover; the control panel is operatively connected (e.g., by an electrical circuit) to the valve to control the opening or closing of the valve; preferably, the valve is a two-way valve.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the voltage between the control board and the valve is different, a voltage regulator is further disposed between the control board and the valve. For example, when the voltage of the control plate is smaller than that of the valve, the amplifying plate is arranged to amplify the voltage.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the control board is connected to a host computer system to perform programming control and information recording. The computer host system can be provided with a specific program or software so as to regularly control the control panel and further operate the valve.

However, it will be appreciated that if the voltages between the control board and the valve are matched, there is no need to apply such voltage regulation means.

The test system of the invention comprises: an operating component that is manipulated by the subject to feed back his judgment of the scent; a signal processing system that processes information based on the subject's manipulation. As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the test system further includes: and the display screen is used for displaying the smell supply state and prompting the test requirement to the subject in real time.

The operating means may be a simple device which is switched, for example, to include only the "yes" and "no" selections to facilitate subject selection. Alternatively, the operating component may be a conventional computer typing keyboard, so as to be compatible with a conventional computer host. On the other hand, the operating component can also be an operating rocker or the like.

The signal processing system can be a signal processing system existing in or installed in a computer host.

In a preferred mode of the present invention, the apparatus further includes: a head fixture for a subject to place a head; preferably, the odor diffusion cover is fixed on the head fixing device, and the odor diffusion cover is matched with the olfactory organ of the subject after the subject places the head. The head fixation device is not particularly limited as long as it provides a supportable stand for the subject to stably receive the test of the present invention.

In a preferred form of the invention, the head mount corresponds in position to the display screen, and an image of the display screen is viewable after the subject places his head on the display screen.

In a preferred mode of the present invention, the apparatus further includes: a box body which is of a non-closed structure; in the smell supply system, the control system, the air pump and the air bottle are arranged in the box body; and the odor diffusion cover communicated with the gas cylinder or the gas pump is positioned outside the box body. Correspondingly, a pipeline system for communicating the gas cylinder with the odor diffusion cover penetrates through the box body, and is partially positioned in the box body and partially positioned outside the box body. For example, it is preferable to set: one of the upper side, the front side and the left side and the right side of the box body is of an open structure, and the other of the left side and the right side is closed but is provided with a pore communicated with the outside. However, it should be understood that the skilled person can consider the case to be an open type or a closed plate semi-open type according to the actual situation (for example, the actual conditions required by the place of use and matched with the place), and although the present invention provides a preferred setting mode, the whole technical solution is not limited thereto.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, the odor diffusion mask is a non-closed mask that delivers odor or air to the olfactory organ (nostrils) of the subject, allowing the subject to come into proper contact with the gas while facilitating gas diffusion; preferably the odour diffusion mask is a semi-open face mask. First, the gas outlet is connected with a mask, so that the gas is intensively released to the vicinity of the nostrils of the testee, the contact of the testee and the gas is increased, and the testee can distinguish the smell conveniently. Secondly, the mask is semi-open rather than fully closed, which facilitates the diffusion of gases into the space, reduces the residue of odor molecules on the mask, and avoids the mixing of different odors near the nostrils.

Test method

The invention also provides a method for testing the working memory of human olfaction, which comprises the following steps: the device for testing the human olfactory working memory is utilized to carry out testing, and a test result is obtained. Preferably, during the test, the subject's head is positioned on the head fixation device and the olfactory organ thereof is fitted with an odor diffusion mask.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, the method includes an encoding stage (which may be an encoding stage without a delay stage), a delay stage, and an identification stage.

The encoding stage provides the subject with more than one scent, and in order to reduce the influence of the last scent on the last scent, pure air is released between the two scents, which is beneficial to eliminate the scent molecules remained on the pipeline and the mask. Thus, the encoding stage comprises: (a) closing the air output of the air pump, and opening the output of the smell in any air bottle to the diffusion cover, (b) closing the air bottle, and opening the output of the air pump to the diffusion cover; changing the opened gas cylinder, repeating the steps (a) to (b), and presenting various smells to the subject. The delay stage does not release gas. In the identification stage, the output of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is started, a subject is required to judge the odor, and the operation assembly is controlled to feed back the result, so that information processing is carried out through the signal processing system.

In the encoding stage, the steps (a) to (b) may be repeated 1 to 9 times, so that 2 to 10 kinds of odors are presented to the subject in the encoding stage. After analyzing the olfactory characteristics of human, the inventor finds that the olfactory sensitivity of human is limited, and the human is not set to show excessive odor for general people except for some people with special abilities; therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the steps (a) to (b) are repeated 2 to 4 times, so that 3 to 5 kinds of odors (i.e., 3 to 5 kinds of memory load) are presented to the subject at this stage. It will be appreciated that, for some populations where olfaction is relatively sensitive,

in the encoding stage, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover can be 2-15 seconds; according to the analysis of human olfaction characteristics by the inventor, as a preferable mode of the invention, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 3-5 seconds; more preferably 4 seconds.

The time for outputting the air of the air pump to the diffusion cover can be 1-6 seconds. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the time for outputting the air from the air pump to the diffusion cover is 1.5 to 2.5 seconds, more preferably 2 seconds, according to the analysis of the characteristics of human olfaction by the present inventors.

In the identification stage, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover can be 3-12 seconds; according to the analysis of the human olfactory characteristics by the inventor, as a preferable mode of the invention, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 4-6 seconds, and more preferably 5 seconds.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, in the recognition stage, the subject gives a judgment of "yes" or "no" by judging whether the odor output in the stage is present in the encoding stage, and manipulates the operation member to feed back the result.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, the signal processing system judges whether the subject is accurate or not according to the actual smell of the gas cylinder, if the detected smell is accurately identified as "hit", if the detected smell is not detected as "false alarm", the signal processing system calculates the working memory capacity (K) by using the number of the kinds of the smells presented in the encoding stage as "memory load".

Although the working memory capacity index K is used in the embodiment of the present invention to evaluate the working memory capacity of the subject at a specific memory load level, it can also be calculated in terms of accuracy (i.e. the proportion of the test that answers correctly in a plurality of repeated tests) or throughput (throughput). The throughput is calculated by the formula of T ═ accuracy-0.5)/0.5 × memory load.

Each memory load can be tested repeatedly for a plurality of times; for example, the test can be repeated for 2-30 times, preferably 3-20 times. It is preferable not to exceed 20 times depending on human olfaction. For the general population, the subjects suffer from certain olfactory fatigue and cognitive fatigue due to excessive repetition times.

After obtaining a working memory capacity value through one round of analysis/test of "encoding phase-delay phase-recognition phase", preferably a further round of analysis/test is performed. The number of analysis rounds can be 1-12, and each increment of 1, the scent presented to the subject is increased by 1-2.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, a variety of images can be displayed on the display screen, so that the subject can know the flow of the test, such as distinguishing whether the test is performed in a stage of presenting odor or in a stage of not presenting odor, or in a delay stage, or in an identification stage. The subject may perform a certain learning at the test money to predict in advance the correspondence of the image on the display screen to the stage.

In the method according to the invention, a delay stage is preferably provided. By "memory" it is meant that the human brain can still characterize and extract the characteristics of external stimuli (odors) after they have disappeared for some time. Thus, it is preferred that sufficient time is left between presentation of the scent and performance of the test to ensure that it is "memory" rather than "sensory".

In the method of the invention, the applied odor can be various and can be commercial odor; or may be a tailored scent. The odors include, but are not limited to: said odor comprises a material selected from the group consisting of: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a garlicky odor, a linalyl formate and ambroxol odor, a lemon odor, a cucumber odor, a marine odor, a chocolate odor, a blueberry odor, a lavender odor, a rose odor, an osmanthus odor, a gardenia odor, a honey peach odor.

As a preferred mode of the present invention, the odor includes one or more odor selected from: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a california odor, an linalyl formate odor, and an ambroxol odor. The inventors have found that these odours are particularly suitable for testing the human olfactory senses, their taste does not cause discomfort to humans, they are easily accepted, and they are not particularly classical or prominent, easily remembered odours. Some particularly impressive smells or especially familiar smells are prone to background interference, thereby affecting the accuracy of the test to some extent.

In the method of the present invention, an odor diffusing cover is used to output gas, administer the gas to a subject, and diffuse released odor into the air; the device adopts a semi-open air outlet design; the air outlet is connected with the semi-open odor diffusion cover, so that the gas can be intensively released to the vicinity of the nostrils of the testee, the contact of the testee and the gas is increased, and the testee can distinguish the odor conveniently; meanwhile, the semi-open design of the mask facilitates the diffusion of gas into the space, reduces the residue of odor molecules on the mask, and avoids the mixing of different odors near the nostrils.

The inventor finds that the human smell sense is very different from the sensitivity of some animals such as mice, so the ventilation quantity set at the air outlet is different from that of the animals. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the air flow rate at the air outlet is 1.5 to 3L/min.

Applications of

The invention also provides application of the device and the method for testing the human olfactory working memory. The devices and methods of the invention are designed primarily for human subjects and are suitable for use in humans.

The device and the method can be used for testing the human olfactory working memory capacity, or can be further integrated with other auxiliary devices to prepare an instrument for testing the human olfactory working memory capacity.

The apparatus and method of the present invention can be used to perform human odor sensitivity testing; or further integrated with other auxiliary devices to prepare the instrument for human odor sensitivity test.

The device and the method can be applied to the detection of the human olfactory work memory capacity in psychology, namely, the capability of a person to memorize various smells within a period of several seconds to tens of seconds is quantitatively evaluated.

The devices and methods of the present invention may be applied to a wide variety of tests that are not directed toward diagnosing disease. For example, the device of the invention can be applied to olfaction characteristic test and olfaction memory capability test of people of different ages (including children, young people, middle-aged people and old people), and can perform non-diagnostic judgment on the capability of corresponding people to acquire the correlation between olfaction and age. In the present invention, the term "subject" includes healthy persons.

For example, the device of the present invention can be applied to an olfactory characteristic test and an olfactory memory test of people in different regions or people in different ethnic groups, and can perform non-diagnostic judgment to obtain the correlation between the olfactory sense and the age.

The olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity contains millions of chemical receptors that recognize odors, and when they enter the nasal cavity, the odor receptor neurons in the olfactory epithelium detect these odors and send neural signals to the olfactory bulb. These signals are then conducted through the olfactory senses to the olfactory cortex of the brain, which recognizes and perceives odors. Therefore, the device and method of the present invention can be applied to the analysis of the activity of the olfactory related organs of the brain, such as the olfactory cortex, and the analysis of the activity of the memory related organs of the brain, such as the forehead and the hippocampus, while testing the sense of smell; further exploring and studying cognitive states or brain region functions of the brain.

The device and the method can be applied to auxiliary judgment without direct diagnosis, and provide olfactory characteristics for reference of clinicians. For example, hyposmia and impairment of working memory are one of the early signs of brain diseases such as parkinson's disease, alzheimer's disease; the olfactory working memory test relies on both olfactory and working memory, and such a "two-in-one" test may be more sensitive than a single olfactory or working memory test. Therefore, the technical scheme of the invention can provide some reference parameters aiming at the olfactory characteristics of the tested individual (subject) for a clinician, so as to be beneficial to further combine other conditions (such as mobility (slow movement), trembling of hands and feet, facial expression change, some clinical marker test results and the like) of the tested individual to realize early screening of related brain diseases.

It will be appreciated that, despite these examples, the apparatus of the invention is not limited to such applications.

The invention will be further illustrated with reference to the following specific examples. It should be understood that these examples are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The experimental procedures, in which specific conditions are not noted in the following examples, are generally carried out under conventional conditions or conditions recommended by the manufacturers.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a schematic diagram for facilitating a person to intuitively understand the apparatus of the present invention, and it should be understood that the sizes of the respective elements/devices in the schematic diagram are not proportionally enlarged or reduced with respect to the sizes of the elements/devices of the actual apparatus, and are mainly intended to make the schematic diagram convenient for the person to understand.

Embodiment 1, the invention relates to a human olfactory working memory testing device

As shown in fig. 1-2, the olfactory working memory testing device of the present invention comprises:

the refrigerator comprises a refrigerator body 1, wherein one of the upper side, the front side and the left side and the right side of the refrigerator body 1 is of an open structure, and the other of the left side and the right side is closed but is provided with a pore communicated with the outside;

an air pump 4 with the power of 20L/min and arranged in the box body is connected with a one-to-twelve-branch joint 43 and is communicated with 10 smell vent pipes 41 (which are communicated with an air bottle), 1 air vent pipe 42 (which is communicated with a smell diffusion cover) and 1 partial pressure pipe 44 (when a valve of the air pump is opened, the air from the air pump can be directly discharged into the environment);

the number of the gas cylinders 2 is 10, the gas cylinders are respectively used for storing and releasing different smells and are communicated with the smell vent pipe 41; the scent snorkel 41 begins in the box and is ultimately delivered to the scent diffusion hood 6. Each smell vent pipe 41 is communicated with the air pump 4, is connected with the corresponding gas cylinder 2 through the two-way valve 53, is connected with the gas outlet of the gas cylinder, and can output the smell of the gas cylinder to the smell diffusion cover 6 for transmitting the smell during the olfactory working memory capacity test; comprises 11 individual smell vent pipes 41(10 smell vent pipes communicated with the air outlet of the

air bottle

2 and 1 air vent pipe) which extend out of the box body and are communicated with the smell diffusion cover 6 for releasing ten kinds of smell and air;

a control system 5 located within the tank, comprising: the control board 51 is connected with a signal processing system (a computer host) and is used for receiving and collecting signals, and the model number of the control board is Mega 2560; an amplification plate 52, which functions to amplify the 5 volt signal to 12 volts, is connected to the two-way valve; a two-way valve 53 for receiving a specific signal to open/close the gas path; a 12 volt power supply providing the operating voltage for the two-way valve. Here, the amplifying plate is used to convert the voltage of the control plate from 5V to 12V, and if the voltage of the control plate is 12V, the amplifying plate may not be needed.

An odor diffusion cover 6 for diffusing the released odor into the air; the design of a semi-open air outlet is adopted; the air outlet is connected with a mask, so that air can be intensively released to the vicinity of the nostrils of the testee, the contact of the testee and the air is increased, and the testee can distinguish odor conveniently; meanwhile, the semi-open design of the mask facilitates the diffusion of gas into the space, reduces the residue of odor molecules on the mask, and avoids the mixing of different odors near the nostrils;

a control and display operation system 7, including a signal processing system (computer host), for controlling the control system 5, sending control information to the control board 51, and receiving the key information of the subject from the operation assembly 71 (keyboard) for processing and analysis; a display screen 72 for displaying a test design picture; an operating component 71 for making a selection during the odour discrimination stage.

A head fixing device 3 which is matched with the head shape of a human body and is provided with an odor diffusion cover 6; and the head fixture 3 is positioned right in front of the display screen 71; so that a person can look up the display screen 71 at the time of the test.

The air pump 4, the amplifying plate 52, the control plate 51 and the scent supply system 3 are connected by wires as shown in fig. 2 to 3. The control board 51 is connected to the amplification board 52 by wire lines (11), the amplification board is connected to the two-way valves by wire lines (11), each two-way valve 53 is connected to the amplification board 52 by a separate wire line (11), and the on/off state of each two-way valve 53 is controlled by the control board 51 through the amplification board 52. On the other hand, the air pump 4 is connected with a ventilation pipeline from the air outlet, and then the pipeline is divided into 12 branch pipelines (1 is divided into 12), wherein 10 pipelines are respectively connected with 10 air cylinders for outputting the smell, and the two-way valve (correspondingly, 10 two-way valves) is arranged between the pipeline and the air cylinders; of which 1 duct directly outputs air and which is also provided with a two-way valve (respectively 1 two-way valve); there are also 1 line which is a pressure divider 44 which does not communicate with the two-way valves but rather acts as a pressure divider path through which gas is output when all two-way valves are closed. Wherein the gas cylinders or air, connected to the 11 two-way valves, are each delivered through a separate conduit until reaching the odour diffusion hood 6.

The two-way valve is positioned between the air pump 4 and the air bottle. In one state, when the two-way valve is closed under the control of the control panel, the gas generated by the gas pump 4 cannot be input into the gas cylinder, so that the smell in the gas cylinder cannot be output; in another state, when the control board controls the downward valve to open, the gas generated by the gas pump 4 is input into the gas cylinder through the smell vent pipe, so that the smell in the gas cylinder is output to the smell diffusion cover 6 through the smell vent pipe.

Example 2, flow of testing example 1

In this example, the apparatus of example 1 was used to design a working memory measuring method for an odor test.

1. Programming

The test adopts an item identification paradigm, and a single test comprises three stages of encoding, delaying and identifying, as shown in fig. 4.

In the encoding phase, the apparatus of the embodiment is turned on, the air pump 4 is turned on, the partial two-way valve 53 is opened under the control of the control panel 51 and the amplification panel 52 operatively connected thereto, and the odors from the plurality of air bottles 2 are delivered to the odor diffusion cover 6 sequentially through the odor supply system 3, and released to the subject, each odor lasting 4 seconds with an interval of 2 seconds between the two odors. The number of odors gradually increased from 3 to 5 (memory load, load 3 is 3 odors, load 4 is 4 odors, and load 5 is 5 odors). When the scent is present at this stage, a red cartoon face prompt is displayed on the display screen 71 connected to the device.

During the delay phase, the device does not release any scent, requiring the subject to remember all the scents presented during the encoding phase. The time length of the delay stage is 2 seconds, and the gray cartoon face prompt is displayed on the display screen 71 at the stage.

During the recognition phase, by means of the control panel 51, a scent from a random one of the cylinders 2 is presented, the subject is asked to judge whether the scent occurred during the coding phase and to answer, by means of the operating assembly 71, by pressing: "yes/no" alternative. The probability of a correct answer of "yes" or "no" is 50% each. When the scent is presented, a blue cartoon face prompt is displayed on a screen connected to the device.

The flow of the more optimized test designed by the present inventors, based on human sensitivity to odor and brain response, is as follows:

step 0: the number of starting odors in the encoding stage was 3 (load 3), and the odor types were random.

Step 1: during the encoding phase, the device randomly selects 3 different scents, which are presented to the subject in turn. The subject breathes and remembers these odors by inhaling through a semi-open air jet. Each scent lasted 4 seconds with a2 second interval between the two scents. After all the odors appeared, a delay period of 2 seconds was entered.

Step 2: during the identification phase, the device randomly selects 1 scent to present to the subject. The subject judged from memory whether the scent occurred in step 1 and answered as "yes" or "no" within 5 seconds.

And step 3: first, step 1 and step 2 were repeated 10 times.

Then, the number of odors in the encoding stage was increased to 4 and 5 in sequence. Repeating steps 1-3 except for a set change in the number of scents at each memory load level.

For the test of the subject, the head was fixed to the head fixture 3, and the test was performed according to the above procedure with the odor diffusion cover 6. And performing evaluation analysis according to the key pressing condition of the subject. First, the working memory capacity K of the subject at each memory load level is calculated, K being (hit rate-false alarm rate) × memory load. Then, a memory capacity curve is drawn with the work memory load level as the horizontal axis and the work memory capacity at the corresponding load level as the vertical axis.

The primary output of the test is the working memory capacity curve.

2. Ventilation setting of semi-open odor diffusion cover 6

The human sense of smell is far less sensitive than some animals such as mice, so that reference cannot be made to animal experiments. After repeated experiments, the inventor finds that by optimally designing the mask to be a semi-open odor diffusion cover and arranging the air volume matched with the semi-open odor diffusion cover at the air outlet, not only is the odor received by a testee facilitated, but also the former odor is rapidly diffused and removed after being received by the testee. The ventilation amount of each smell at the air outlet is 1.5-3L/min corresponding to the semi-open smell diffusion cover.

Example 3, application of the apparatus of example 1

1. Odor selection

In this example, 10 standard odors from Fengyi and Qiwashington company were used, including Dorkish (cat # 939668) from Fengyi company, Jasminum lactone (cat # 965414) and Cyclohexadecenone (cat # 1382293) from Qiwashington company, isobutylquinoline (cat # 6127003), vanillin isobutyrate (cat # 1465543), cyclopropylanisole (cat # 14203), menthone (cat # 5202703), zingerone (cat # 5503001), Ganfeishi (cat # 6378003), linalyl formate (cat # 5150501) and sialitol (cat # 908930).

Ventilation of semi-open odor diffusion cover 6: 2.2L/min.

2. Test and results

A series of subjects were tested according to the test procedure of example 2, supra.

Subject 1

Age: 21 gender women, university of cultural degree, no history of neurological or psychopsychological diseases.

The results were obtained and the working memory capacity curve of the subject was plotted according to the test procedure of example 2 above.

The results are shown in fig. 5, and it can be seen that the working memory capacity K of the subject for three to five odors is greater than 2, indicating that the olfactory working memory of the subject is better overall.

Subject 2

Age: male gender 27, cultural graduate, no history of neurological or psychopsychological disorders.

As a result, as shown in fig. 5, it can be seen that the working memory capacity K of the subject for three to four odors is close to 2, and the working memory capacity K for five odors is only 1, indicating that the working memory performance of the subject is significantly reduced when the memory load is increased.

Subject 3

Age: 63, sex, high school, no history of neurological or psychopsychological diseases.

The results are shown in fig. 5, and it can be seen that the working memory capacity K of the subject for three to four odors is close to 1, and the working memory capacity K for five odors is less than-1, indicating that the olfactory working memory of the subject is overall poor, and the working memory performance is significantly reduced when the memory load is increased.

From the above tests, the present inventors found that the test protocol of example 2 is matched with the human odor recognition ability, and can accurately judge the olfactory working memory of the subject. Meanwhile, repeated experiments on specific crowds also show that the detection result of the odor combination used in the embodiment is accurate and reliable and has good stability.

Example 4 application of the apparatus of example 1

1. Odor selection

Lemon flavor, cucumber flavor, marine flavor, chocolate flavor, blueberry flavor, lavender flavor, rose flavor, sweet osmanthus flavor, gardenia flavor and juicy peach flavor of the Alers essence company are adopted. It is to be noted that the alss essence company names these odors as, for example, chocolate flavors, etc., but according to the identification of the present inventors, they belong to odors that are "familiar" but "hard to name"; the terms "chocolate" and "lemon" are used herein as the flavor names of flavor companies, and are not directly equivalent to the actual perception of flavor.

Ventilation of semi-open odor diffusion cover 6: 2.2L/min.

Subject 4

Age: 24, sexed women, university of cultural degree, no history of neurological or psychopsychological diseases.

The results are shown in fig. 6, which shows that the subject has a working memory capacity K close to 1 for all three to five odors. Although the test results were relatively stable, the measured working memory capacity K was lower compared to subjects 1 of similar age and cultural degree.

Subject 5

Age: gender male, cultural graduate, no history of neurological or psychopsychological disorders.

The results are shown in fig. 6, and it can be seen that the working memory capacity K of the subject for three to four odors is close to 1 and the working memory capacity K for five odors is close to 0, indicating that the working memory performance of the subject is significantly reduced when the memory load is increased. The measured working memory capacity K was lower compared to subjects 2 of similar age and culture.

The test results of the present inventors show that the working memory capacity measured by the test using the odor of the alser essence company is generally stable. The odour combination used in example 3 is relatively more stable against the same population.

Example 5 flow of testing example 2

1. Programming

The test adopts an item identification paradigm, and a single test comprises three stages of encoding, delaying and identifying, and the flow is basically as shown in fig. 4 except for specific pointed factors such as the duration of the smell.

In the encoding phase, the device of the embodiment is turned on, and the various odors from the cylinders 2 are presented to the subject sequentially, each lasting 3 seconds, with 2 seconds between the two odors, by the control of the control board 51. The number of odors gradually increased from 3 to 5 (memory load 3 to memory load 5). When the scent is present at this stage, a red cartoon face prompt is displayed on the display screen 71 connected to the device.

During the delay phase, the device does not release any scent, requiring the subject to remember all the scents presented during the encoding phase. The delay period is 2 seconds long, and only the black fixation point is displayed on the display screen 71.

step 0: the number of starting odors in the encoding stage was 3.

Step 1: during the encoding phase, the device randomly selects 3 different scents, which are presented to the subject in turn. The subject breathes and remembers these odors by inhaling through a semi-open air jet. Each scent lasted 3 seconds with a2 second interval between the two scents. After all the odors were present, a2 second delay period was entered.

And 2, step: during the identification phase, the device randomly selects 1 scent to present to the subject. The subject judged from memory whether the odor occurred in step 1 and responded with "yes" or "no" within 5 seconds.

And step 3: first, step 1 and step 2 were repeated 5 times.

Then, when the subject judged correct 4 or more times in 5 tests, the number of odors in the encoding stage was increased to 4 and 5 in order. Repeating steps 1-3 except for a set change in the number of scents at each memory load level.

And performing evaluation analysis according to the key pressing condition of the subject.

The primary output of the test is the working memory capacity curve.

Subject 6

Age: 26 gender women, university of cultural degree, no history of neurological or psychopsychological diseases.

The results were obtained and the working memory capacity curve of the subject was plotted according to the test procedure of example 5 above.

The results are shown in fig. 7, where it can be seen that the working memory capacity K of the subject was greater than 2 for all three to four odors, but less than-1.5 for all five odors, indicating that the subject exhibited a significant decline in working memory performance at elevated memory loads, similar to the working memory capacity K tested in age-culturally closely related subject 2 (close to 2).

The above results demonstrate that an approximate memory capacity curve can be measured after reducing the scent administration time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

Example 6 flow of testing example 3

1. Programming

In the encoding phase, the device of the embodiment is turned on, and the various odors from the cylinders 2 are presented to the subject sequentially, each lasting 4 seconds, with 2 seconds between the two odors, by the control of the control board 51. The number of odors gradually increased from 3 to 9 (memory load 3 to 9). When the scent is present at this stage, a red cartoon face prompt is displayed on the display screen 71 connected to the device.

During the delay phase, the device does not release any scent, requiring the subject to remember all the scents presented during the encoding phase. The time of the delay stage is 2 seconds, and the gray cartoon face prompt is displayed on the display screen 71 at the stage.

step 0: the number of starting odors in the encoding stage was 3.

Step 1: during the encoding phase, the device randomly selects 3 different scents, which are presented to the subject in turn. The subject breathes and remembers these odors by inhaling through a semi-open air jet. Each scent lasted 4 seconds with a2 second interval between the two scents. After all the odors were present, a2 second delay period was entered.

And step 3: first, step 1 and step 2 were repeated 5 times.

The number of odours in the encoding stage then increases to 4 and 5 in sequence. Repeating steps 1-3 except for a set change in the number of scents at each memory load level.

The primary output of the test is the correct rate curve.

According to the test procedure of the foregoing example 4, the results were obtained and the correct rate curves for 21 subjects were plotted.

As a result, as shown in fig. 8, it can be seen that the memory accuracy of 21 subjects for 3 to 9 odors decreased with the increase in the number of odors, the memory accuracy decreased slowly when 3 to 5 odors were tested, the working memory performance was stable, and the working memory performance decreased rapidly when 6 or more odors were tested.

The above results show that for human, using 3 to 5 odors as memory load, a stable and accurate test result can be obtained.

All documents referred to herein are incorporated by reference into this application as if each were individually incorporated by reference. Furthermore, it should be understood that various changes and modifications of the present invention can be made by those skilled in the art after reading the above teachings of the present invention, and these equivalents also fall within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus for testing human olfactory working memory, the apparatus comprising an odor delivery system and a testing system;

the scent supply system includes: the device comprises a control system, an air pump, N air cylinders and a smell diffusion cover communicated with the air cylinders or the air pump; the air pump outputs air to the air bottle or the odor diffusion cover; the gas cylinder is independently packaged with different smells; the control system starts or stops the output of the smell in the gas cylinder or the air of the air pump to the diffusion cover; the scent diffusion barrier administers scent or air to a subject; wherein N is a natural number of 3-30;

the test system comprises: an operating component that is manipulated by the subject to feed back his judgment of the scent; a signal processing system that processes information based on the subject's manipulation.

2. The device for testing human olfactory working memory of claim 1 wherein the test system further comprises: and the display screen is used for displaying the smell supply state and prompting the test requirement to the subject in real time.

3. The device for testing olfactory working memory of a human of claim 1 further comprising: a box body which is of a non-closed structure; in the smell supply system, the control system, the air pump and the air bottle are positioned in the box body; and the odor diffusion cover communicated with the gas cylinder or the gas pump is positioned outside the box body.

4. The device for testing the working memory of the smell sense of human beings according to claim 1, wherein the air pump supplies air to the air inlets of the air cylinders through independent pipelines respectively; preferably, the air pump outputs air to the N air cylinders, directly to the odor diffusion cover or to the outside through a joint of 1 rotation (N +2), respectively.

5. The device for human olfactory working memory testing of claim 3 wherein the control system comprises: a control panel, a valve;

the valve is positioned on a vent pipe between the air pump and the air bottle or a vent pipe between the air pump and the odor diffusion cover;

the control panel is operatively connected with the valve so as to control the opening or closing of the valve; preferably, the valve is a two-way valve.

6. The device for human olfactory working memory testing of claim 1 wherein the gas cylinder includes a gas inlet and a gas outlet, the gas pump supplying gas to the gas inlet of the gas cylinder, the gas outlet outputting the odor to the odor diffusion housing through a separate conduit.

7. The device for testing olfactory working memory of human of claim 1 wherein the scent diffusion mask is a non-enclosed face mask that delivers scent or air to the olfactory organ of the subject to allow the subject to come into proper contact with the gas while facilitating diffusion of the gas; preferably the odour diffusion mask is a semi-open face mask.

8. The device for testing human olfactory working memory of claim 1 or 2, further comprising: a head fixture for a subject to place a head;

preferably, the odor diffusion cover is fixed on the head fixing device, and after the subject places the head, the odor diffusion cover is matched with the olfactory organ of the subject;

preferably, the test system further comprises a display screen, and the head fixing device corresponds to the display screen in position, so that an image of the display screen can be observed after the subject places the head on the test system.

9. Use of the device for testing human olfactory working memory according to any of claims 1 to 8 for performing a test of human olfactory working memory capacity, for performing a test of human odor sensitivity, for performing an analysis of brain cognitive status or brain region function related to olfactory memory; or preparing an instrument for carrying out human olfactory working memory capacity test, odor sensitivity test or brain cognitive state or brain region function analysis related to olfactory memory.

10. A method for testing human olfactory working memory, comprising:

(1) providing a device for testing human olfactory working memory according to any one of claims 1 to 7;

(2) and (3) carrying out human olfactory working memory test by using the device in the step (1) to obtain a test result.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method of (2) comprises: the subject wears an odor diffusion mask, and the following steps are performed by using the control system:

and (3) an encoding stage: (a) closing the air output of the air pump, and opening the output of the smell in any air bottle to the diffusion cover, (b) closing the air bottle, and opening the output of the air pump to the diffusion cover; changing the opened gas cylinder, repeating the steps (a) to (b), and presenting various smells to the subject; wherein the step (b) of repeating the steps (a) to (b) to the last time is also referred to as a "delay stage";

and (3) identification: and opening the output of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover, requiring the testee to judge the odor, and operating the operation assembly to feed back the result, and processing information through the signal processing system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein in the encoding stage,

repeating steps (a) - (b) 1-9 times, thereby presenting 2-10 odors to the subject at this stage; and/or

(a) The output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 2-15 seconds; preferably 3 to 10 seconds; and/or

(b) In the middle, the output time of the air pump to the diffusion cover is 1-6 seconds; preferably 1.5 to 8 seconds.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein in the identification stage, the output time of the odor in any gas cylinder to the diffusion cover is 3-12 seconds; preferably 3.5 to 9 seconds; and/or

The flux of the smell or the air is 1.5-3L/min of ventilation capacity of the air outlet.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein in the recognition stage, the subject gives a judgment of "yes" or "no" by judging whether the scent outputted in the stage appears in the encoding stage, and manipulates the operation member to feed back the result;

the signal processing system judges whether a subject is accurate or not according to the actual smell of the gas cylinder, if the detected smell is accurately identified as 'hit', if the detected smell is not mistakenly judged as 'false alarm', the type number of the smell presented in the encoding stage is taken as 'memory load', and the working memory capacity (K) is calculated:

the working memory capacity is (hit rate-false alarm rate) x memory load.

15. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the analysis of the "encoding stage-recognition stage" is repeated 2 to 30 times, and the average value of the working memory capacity is counted;

preferably, after completing a working memory capacity calculation, the method further comprises the following steps of analyzing, increasing the number of odor types presented to the testee, and carrying out the working memory capacity; preferably, 1 to 2 kinds of odors are added in increments.

16. The method of any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the odor comprises a material selected from the group consisting of: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a carisson odor, a linalyl formate and ambroxol odor, a lemon odor, a cucumber odor, a marine odor, a chocolate odor, a blueberry odor, a lavender odor, a rose odor, an osmanthus odor, a gardenia odor, a honey peach odor; preferably, the scent comprises a scent selected from: a tomatillo odor, a jasmonate odor, a cyclohexadene odor, an isobutylquinoline odor, a vanillin isobutyrate odor, a cyclopropylanisole odor, a fresh menthone odor, a zingerone odor, a california odor, an linalyl formate odor, and an ambroxol odor.

17. The method of any of claims 11 to 14, further comprising: enabling a subject to watch a display screen during testing, wherein the display screen displays the smell supply state and prompts the testing requirement in real time; preferably, when the encoding stage presents the odor, the display displays the image 1; when the encoding stage does not present odor and the delay stage displays image 2, and when the recognition stage presents odor, image 3 is displayed.