Early-blind individuals show impaired performance in wine odor categorization

International audience; Blind individuals display superior sensory abilities in other modalities, yet results remain contradictory regarding their performance on olfactory tasks. Using complex ecological olfactory tasks, we evaluated the impact of blindness on olfactory performance. We tested 12 early-blind individuals (M = 49, SD = 13.09) and 12 sighted controls (M = 49, SD = 14.31) who were all blindfolded. Based solely on the wine odors, participants evaluated 24 pairs of wine and determined if both samples belonged to the same category (red wine, white wine, or rosé wine) or not (odor categorization), and if so, whether they were identical or not (odor differentiation). Then, they had to classify 15 different wines (5 red, 5 white and 5 rosé) into red, white, and rosé wines (odor classification). Blind individuals (d': M = 1.3, SD = 1.2) presented lower scores compared to sighted controls (M = 2.2 SD = 0.8; p