AirOlfo - psychophysiological responses to olfactory stimulation

Abstract

Recent sherds of evidence collectively reinforce the importance of olfaction (the sense of smell) in attaining a good quality of life, primarily due to its well-established association with social, behavioral, and emotional dimensions of life. In humans, olfaction plays a vital role in maintaining innate behavior and interpersonal relationships, loss of which could lead to physiological (malnutrition) and (neuro)psychological disorders (depression). Notably, with respect to the air quality index (AQI), Delhi is among the most polluted cities in the world, making Delhiites vulnerable to pollution-driven, albeit olfactory-mediated health-related disorders This paper aims to find the pattern on olfactory senses using psychological and physiological responses. The focus of our study is to find insights on olfactory senses with changes in pollution levels over a period of time. This paper strives to understand the relationship among three major essays - Pollution, psychological and physiological signals (Galvanic Skin Response, Electroencephalography), and olfaction. The pilot study involved collecting data for 34 participants over 3 sessions. The pilot study showed a significant correlation between the physiological responses and olfactory stimuli with high varying pollution levels across sessions. The multimodal features from GSR, EEG, and psychometric tests were fed into a classification model to predict sessions to obtain a maximum accuracy of 93%.