Sex differences in olfactory identification depending on verbal fluency

Smell plays a vital role in our daily lives and influences the way we perceive the world around us. People have the excellent ability to detect and distinguish odors, but they usually have difficulty in identifying individual odors. Olfactory abilities (olfactory identification, olfactory detection and olfactory discrimination) also differ significantly interindividually. In general, however, women achieve better results. While a number of studies point to sex differences in olfactory perception, especially in the identification of odors, we need to understand sex only as an overarching concept that includes specific factors such as hormonal influences or different odor experiences that can actually influence olfactory abilities. One of them could be verbal fluency, which allows us to recall information from memory, as there are studies showing the link between the ability to identify odors and verbal fluency. The main aim of the thesis was to test whether the difference between males and females in the identification of odors is mediated by a sex difference in verbal fluency. The secondary aim of the thesis was to explore whether the connection of odor identification and verbal fluency varies according to which form of verbal fluency is tested (phonetic or semantic), and whether these tests can be..