The most common solution, and often the most inexpensive and preferable solution, is to present odors in bottles of various kinds. Whereas students of the visual and auditory senses are able to present stimuli repeatedly in a highly precise manner, both spatially and temporally, students of olfaction are faced with the challenge of delivering finite structural objects (molecules) whose percept changes over time. However, researchers studying the chemical senses face a unique problem: olfactory and gustatory stimuli are short-lived and difficult to present with inexpensive and commercially-available equipment. Researchers of perception, independent of sensory modality, must have precise control of their stimuli. Finally, we present data from behavioral and psychophysiological recordings demonstrating that the olfactometer is suitable for use during event-related EEG experiments. In addition, we present odor onset and concentration curves as measured with a photoionization detector, together with corresponding GC/MS analyses of signal-intensity drop (5.9%) over a longer period of use. We provide a detailed description of the olfactometer construction, a list of its individual parts and prices, as well as potential modifications to the design. The olfactometer can present either solid or liquid odor sources, and it exhibits a fast stimulus-rise time and a fast and stable stimulus-onset time. Here, we detail the construction of an olfactometer that is constructed almost exclusively with “off-the-shelf” parts, requires little technical knowledge to build, has relatively low price tags, and is controlled by E-Prime, a turnkey-ready and easily-programmable software commonly used in psychological experiments. However, an olfactometer is a piece of equipment that either comes with a high price tag or requires a high degree of technical expertise to build and/or to run. Due to these temporal demands, an olfactometer is often needed. Many human olfactory experiments call for fast and stable stimulus-rise times as well as exact and stable stimulus-onset times.
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