Left-handed women are more likely to be missing their olfactory bulbs, a part of the brain considered vital for smell.

A review of the public brain-MRI database with 1,113 participants (606 women) found 0.6% of women and 4.25% of left-handed women were still able to smell normally, despite not having anatomically defined olfactory bulbs.

The quirk has never been found in men and health professionals are left ‘puzzled’ why this is the case.

Experts say the discovery of humans being able to smell despite missing these bulbs implies extreme plasticity in the functional neuroanatomy of the sensory system.

Read the full study here.

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