Many people in the CKOS community look for ways to feel less overwhelmed by difficult smells, especially during recovery from smell loss or parosmia. Research into music and smell perception is limited, but a study published in 2021 explored whether regular music listening could influence how people feel when they encounter an unpleasant smell. The study did not involve people with smell disorders, but the findings offer a small insight into how simple sensory habits might support emotional resilience.
What the researchers did
The research team worked with 32 healthy volunteers. Everyone took part in two test sessions, three weeks apart. During each session, they lay in a brain scanner while they listened to either positive classical music or neutral sounds. At the same time, they were exposed to either a very unpleasant odour, similar to rotten egg, or neutral air.
After each trial participants rated how disgusting the smell was, how they felt about the music, and how they felt overall in that moment.
Between the two sessions, half the participants carried out a home music routine. The study called this musical training. It involved passive listening to positive classical music for about fifteen minutes, twice a day, for twenty days. They were asked simply to listen and pay attention, not to actively change their mood.
What the study found about music and smell perception
After the three week musical training, the training group still found the bad smells unpleasant, but they showed a stronger reduction in disgust ratings than the control group. They also reported a better overall emotional state when the bad smell was paired with positive music.
In simple terms, the bad smell still smelled bad, but it unsettled them a little less, especially when combined with positive music. The researchers describe this as implicit emotion regulation. This refers to emotional adjustments that happen in the background, without conscious effort.
What did not change
Although the behavioural ratings changed, the fMRI data did not show clear alterations in brain regions that are often involved in emotion regulation. The authors suggest that three weeks may have been too short to detect brain-level changes, or that the type of task in the scanner was not able to capture more deliberate coping strategies participants may have begun to use.
What this means for people with smell loss
It is important to understand the limits of this study. It involved healthy volunteers with normal smell function. It used a single unpleasant odour rather than parosmia triggers, and it focused on emotional responses, not changes in smell ability. It also ran for a short period compared with smell training research.
This means we cannot say that regular music listening improves smell ability or reduces parosmia. However, the study suggests that predictable, positive sensory routines may help soften emotional reactions to difficult smells. For some people this might include listening to calming playlists while cooking, using background music during stressful moments, or pairing music with a smell training routine to support a steadier mood.
If you want to look at the study yourself, you can find it in BMC Neuroscience.
Where this sits alongside smell training
Smell training remains the best evidenced approach for supporting smell recovery. Research suggests that training needs to be consistent and long term, often four months or more. Improvements tend to be gradual.
The music study explored something different. It looked at how emotional responses can shift during a short sensory routine. If you are already doing smell training, you might choose to listen to familiar calming music before or after training, use music to bring some predictability to your routine, or take short notes on mood as well as smell ratings to spot patterns over time.
For practical guidance on smell training, you can find resources throughout the CKOS website.
Key Takeaway
A study from 2021 found that regular music listening helped healthy adults feel less emotionally affected by an unpleasant smell, although it did not show changes in brain activity. Research into music and smell perception is still at an early stage, but this study supports the idea that gentle sensory routines, including music, may help people cope with difficult smells alongside long term smell training.
