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Ph.D.
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My research attempts to broadly understand how cognitive and emotional processes modify the way we perceive odor and sensory irritation from volatile chemicals. One approach involves examining the associations and disassociations between subjective (self-report) and objective markers of irritation (e.g., ocular inflammation, nasal blood flow, respiratory patterns) resulting from chemical exposure. Another line of investigation examines the relationship between exposure frequency, adaptation and clinical sequelae from exposure to airborne chemicals, both in the laboratory and in occupational and community settings. In a related effort, modeling how odorant transport factors (e.g., physico-chemical characteristics of the odorant, nasal airflow, inflammatory changes) affect these processes can provide additional insight into variation in olfactory perception among the population. |
Pamela Dalton