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The Color of Odors
Abstract
The interaction between the vision of colors and odor determination is investigated through lexical analysis of experts' wine tasting comments. The analysis shows that the odors of a wine are, for the most part, represented by objects that have the color of the wine. The assumption of the existence of a perceptual illusion between odor and color is confirmed by a psychophysical experiment. A white wine artificially colored red with an odorless dye was olfactory described as a red wine by a panel of 54 tasters. Hence, because of the visual information, the tasters discounted the olfactory information. Together with recent psychophysical and neuroimaging data, our results suggest that the above perceptual illusion occurs during the verbalization phase of odor determination.
The previous chapters described the relevance and impact of individual sensory stimuli on consumer behavior. In retail, however, the reality is considerably more complex. Consumers inevitably perceive retail environments and products in a multisensory way (i.e., simultaneously with all their senses). Thus, the presence of one sensory stimulus (e.g., scent) can influence how consumers react to another stimulus (e.g., music). Specifically, stimuli that appeal to different sensory modalities reinforce or complement one another, thereby influencing the perception and evaluation of the retail environment, the retailer, individual products, or even brands. Combining a scent with specific background music can, for example, lead to an enhanced shopping experience compared to using scent or music in isolation. In general, a multisensory approach has stronger effects on consumers than simply adding other stimuli appealing to the same sensory modality. The chapter highlights the concept of multisensory congruence, where stimuli that fit well together enhance evaluations of the retail environment, products, and brands. Additionally, we discuss the concept of crossmodal correspondences, illustrating how perceptions in one sensory modality can influence perceptions in another sensory modality.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a wide set of technologies that can be used for many different scopes. AM is now a well-integrated prototyping and development tool in most industrial endeavours, while proper end-product manufacturing has only seen very specific niche successes. Given the complexity of AM’s matrix, which is full of discontinuities and non-trivial intercorrelations that play a relevant role in product design and development, it should not come as a surprise that not many end-product applications have succeeded in making use of it. This paper argues that understanding AM’s complex matrix and correctly identifying suitable production niches for it are key elements of this issue, a topic for which existing literature and tools are scarce. The analysis of AM’s status quo for end-product manufacturing and the review of existing approaches to integrate these technologies with product development are the basis used in this paper to propose a suitability assessment tool to fill this knowledge gap.
The relationship between perceiver and perceived is understood distinctly by natural scientists and phenomenologists. For psychologists who adopt a natural science approach, this relationship is mostly unreflected upon and rests upon the presumption of a world independent of consciousness. In contrast, phenomenological psychology takes as its starting point the relational and coconstitutive relationship, highlighting how the world entails a relational involvement between a perceiver and the perceived—thus to describe an object is to already implicate and imply a person to whom that object appears. Husserl warned the burgeoning field of psychology that the unreflective assumption of the natural science approach would result in the description of objects of psychological inquiry as if they were natural objects, a practice called psychologism. Merleau-Ponty describes how this thesis of an objective world necessitates the advancement of ancillary hypotheses during moments that challenge this assumption. This article takes the literature on sensory transference as a case in point. After presenting examples of these ancillary hypotheses, we reconceive of this literature as shedding light on the fundamental relationship between perceiver and perceived. While a natural science model understands this literature as examples of perceptual illusions and faults with cognitive perception, we argue instead that by abandoning the assumption of the world independent of consciousness, the world‘s ambiguity is no longer a conundrum but its positive structure.
Consumers’ mental pictures of wine are multifaceted and are shaped by their sensory (taste, smell, visual, sensation) perceptions, in addition to emotional, cultural and extrinsic (brand, price, and awards) influences. This study explores whether consumers from three different wine cultures share mental representations of three wine concepts. Through an online survey, French, Portuguese, and South African wine consumers described their conceptualizations of Wine, Red wine and White wine aroma. Given these nations’ rich winemaking traditions and diverse wine styles, differences in consumer perspectives were likely to emerge. The findings demonstrate that, regardless of cultural background, the broad concept of Wine aligns with the more specific Red and White wine conceptualizations, although the latter concepts diverge from each other. Notably, cultural contexts significantly influence participants’ representations of Red Wine, with particularly marked contrasts between the South African and French respondents. This suggests that like experts, wine consumers have also built representations of wine through semantic memory. This cross-cultural analysis of consumer interpretations of wine concepts holds the potential for refining marketing strategies to overcome cultural barriers in wine purchasing behaviour.
Since whisky can be described as a blend of chemicals, and since each chemical ingredient has its own aroma, it seems reasonable to think that the flavor of whisky is determined by its chemical constitution. This Democritean perspective has been studied by flavor chemists and is the main focus of this chapter. Chapter 9 expands this view by considering the possible role of microscopic structures.
Odor guide values (OGV) are used when a person is exposed to an odor in a room and complains about odor annoyance. OGV are derived from odor detection thresholds (ODT) measured under standard environmental conditions. The study question was whether uncomfortable environmental conditions alter odor perception and should therefore be considered when applying OGV. ODT for n-butanol were determined with an olfactometer
and in room air. Twenty healthy, non-smoking volunteers (10 women/10 men, 19–50 years) were selected and trained compliant with the European Standard for Olfactometry EN 13725:2022. Standard conditions were an average temperature between 22 °C and 23 °C, warm light (2800 Kelvin), quiet fan noise (45 dB), 415 ppm carbon dioxide (CO2), and relative humidity between 34 % and 42 %. On each test day, one of five conditions was examined: high temperature (26°C), cold light (6500 Kelvin), traffic noise (70 dB with peaks up to 85 dB), 1000 ppm CO2 and 4000 ppm CO2. Comparability of log-transformed ODT values was assessed by Bland-Altman plot analysis. None of the five conditions systematically affected ODT, either when measured with an olfactometer or in room air. Compared to standard conditions (Limits of Agreement (± LoA) 1.03), the variability of ODT was higher at high temperature (± LoA 1.70) and traffic noise (± LoA 1.45), but not at cold light (± LoA 1.02), 1000 ppm CO2 (± LoA 0.87) or 4000 ppm CO2 (± LoA 0.93). The results show that OGV can be used in uncomfortable environmental conditions. However, because ODT were lower or higher in a few subjects at high
temperatures and traffic noise, individual occupant’s perception of temperature and noise should always be considered when applying the OGV concept. Furthermore, the results confirm that the experimental determination of ODT should be performed under controlled and standardized environmental conditions.
We perceive color everywhere and on everything that we encounter in daily life. Color science has progressed to the point where a great deal is known about the mechanics, evolution, and development of color vision, but less is known about the relation between color vision and psychology. However, color psychology is now a burgeoning, exciting area and this Handbook provides comprehensive coverage of emerging theory and research. Top scholars in the field provide rigorous overviews of work on color categorization, color symbolism and association, color preference, reciprocal relations between color perception and psychological functioning, and variations and deficiencies in color perception. The Handbook of Color Psychology seeks to facilitate cross-fertilization among researchers, both within and across disciplines and areas of research, and is an essential resource for anyone interested in color psychology in both theoretical and applied areas of study.
Neuroscientific research on emotion has developed dramatically over the past decade. The cognitive neuroscience of human emotion, which has emerged as the new and thriving area of 'affective neuroscience', is rapidly rendering existing overviews of the field obsolete. This handbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative survey of knowledge and topics investigated in this cutting-edge field. It covers a range of topics, from face and voice perception to pain and music, as well as social behaviors and decision making. The book considers and interrogates multiple research methods, among them brain imaging and physiology measurements, as well as methods used to evaluate behavior and genetics. Editors Jorge Armony and Patrik Vuilleumier have enlisted well-known and active researchers from more than twenty institutions across three continents, bringing geographic as well as methodological breadth to the collection. This timely volume will become a key reference work for researchers and students in the growing field of neuroscience.
Neuroscientific research on emotion has developed dramatically over the past decade. The cognitive neuroscience of human emotion, which has emerged as the new and thriving area of 'affective neuroscience', is rapidly rendering existing overviews of the field obsolete. This handbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative survey of knowledge and topics investigated in this cutting-edge field. It covers a range of topics, from face and voice perception to pain and music, as well as social behaviors and decision making. The book considers and interrogates multiple research methods, among them brain imaging and physiology measurements, as well as methods used to evaluate behavior and genetics. Editors Jorge Armony and Patrik Vuilleumier have enlisted well-known and active researchers from more than twenty institutions across three continents, bringing geographic as well as methodological breadth to the collection. This timely volume will become a key reference work for researchers and students in the growing field of neuroscience.
Neuroscientific research on emotion has developed dramatically over the past decade. The cognitive neuroscience of human emotion, which has emerged as the new and thriving area of 'affective neuroscience', is rapidly rendering existing overviews of the field obsolete. This handbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative survey of knowledge and topics investigated in this cutting-edge field. It covers a range of topics, from face and voice perception to pain and music, as well as social behaviors and decision making. The book considers and interrogates multiple research methods, among them brain imaging and physiology measurements, as well as methods used to evaluate behavior and genetics. Editors Jorge Armony and Patrik Vuilleumier have enlisted well-known and active researchers from more than twenty institutions across three continents, bringing geographic as well as methodological breadth to the collection. This timely volume will become a key reference work for researchers and students in the growing field of neuroscience.
Bentham Briefs in Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy showcases the latest developments and techniques in the fields of pharmacology and healthcare, presenting them in distinctive volumes. Each volume offers a concise, focused overview of subjects, authored by experts in the field. The book series serves as an anthology for graduate students and researchers in pharmacology and life sciences, as well as medical professionals seeking specialization for research-related projects.
The second volume, Botanicals and Natural Bioactives: Prevention and Treatment of Diseases, discusses the medicinal applications of natural bioactives in the treatment of a variety of physiological disorders, including cardiovascular diseases, neurological dysfunctions, infectious diseases, age-related diseases, and cancer. The volume has eight chapters on disease treatment and preventative measures, with contributions from more than twenty experts. Readers will comprehend the niche utilization of botanicals and natural bioactives as medicinal agents for a variety of ailments. Overall, the chapters dwell on the chemosensory features of nutritious foods to avoid non-communicable diseases and the role of immunomodulating natural products and botanicals in the prevention and treatment of skin diseases, aging, inflammation, cancer, parasitic infections in the bloodstream, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, and autoimmune disorders. The variety of topics covered in this book makes it an excellent resource for a wide audience interested in phytomedicine.
Odour imagery, the ability to experience smell when an appropriate stimulus is absent, has widely been documented as being particularly difficult. However, previous studies have shown the beneficial effect of visual cues (e.g., pictures or words) to facilitate performance in numerous tasks of olfactory nature. Therefore, the use of visual cues to evoke odours seems relevant. In this study, our interest is directed towards non-figurative coloured arrangements, which result from a patented technology and aim at chromatically representing any smell from its chemical composition and sensory description. The aim of this study was to characterise the neural mechanisms of odour imagery facilitated by these non-figurative coloured arrangements. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we recorded and compared hemodynamic responses during odour imagery facilitated by non-figurative coloured arrangements and pictures. Our findings reveal that the use of non-figurative coloured arrangements during odour imagery solicits olfactory and non-olfactory brain regions (orbitofrontal cortex, insula, hippocampus, thalamus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and supplementary motor area), which are mainly involved in olfactory processing and multimodal integration. Moreover, very similar cortical activity was found between the use of non-figurative coloured arrangements and pictures during odour imagery, with increased activity in the supplementary motor area during the use of coloured arrangements only. Overall, non-figurative coloured arrangements could become a robust tool to visually evoke odours without requiring prior familiarity with the depicted odour. Future studies should use psychometric measures to determine the relationships between brain activation, odour imagery ability and vividness of the generated odour images.
Scents can improve product evaluations, but incorporating scents in advertising and packaging is relatively inefficient and oftentimes hard to implement (e.g., online). We therefore present a theoretical framework that explains how pictures on packages and in advertisements can evoke imagined scents (olfactory imagery), thereby improving evaluations and increasing choice shares, without delivering any actual scent. Seven main studies (and four supplemental studies) demonstrate this visual-olfactory effect on product evaluations and choices, and reveal three conditions that accentuate, eliminate, and reverse this effect. First, the effect of olfactory imagery on product evaluation is greater among consumers with a stronger need for smell. Second, although many products are marketed with scented versions, we show that pictures only improve evaluations of products for which scent is a relevant or typical attribute. Moreover, although deodorizing products frequently utilize pictures of malodorous objects, we show that such pictures actually harm evaluations. By revealing that pictures can evoke imagined scents, which affect product evaluations even without an actual scent, this research demonstrates that scent has far more pervasive and powerful marketing potential than previously thought.
This case study was designed to engage children’s sense of smell through a story-related museum exhibition. Children’s responses to the exhibition, with particular attention to their olfactory perceptions of the odors at the exhibition, were solicited through researcher-child interviews and children’s drawings. Responses from 28 children (girls N = 14, boys N = 14) aged between 4.5–8 years were analyzed after they visited the exhibition using the cross-modal association and multisensory theories. Interview data showed that dark (brown and black) colors elicited children’s negative olfactory associations for both positive and negative odors. Children’s drawings did not seem to make references to the odors at the exhibitions but rather their preferences for the different story characters. We theorize about the associations between smell and colors in children’s responses and distil some key learnings for multisensory museology.
Food is more than just nutrition. Its preparation, presentation and consumption is a multifold communicative practice which includes the meal's design and its whole field of experience. How is food represented in cookbooks, product packaging or in paintings? How is dining semantically charged? How is the sensuality of eating treated in different cultural contexts? In order to acknowledge the material and media-related aspects of eating as a cultural praxis, experts from media studies, art history, literary studies, philosophy, experimental psychology, anthropology, food studies, cultural studies and design studies share their specific approaches.
The music field is lively and creative, and innovation in the final product is a leading force in the sector. However, the physical instruments used by musicians to produce their craft are highly conservative and have developed little over the last centuries. Computers, audio software, and electronic musical instruments have been integrated into musical practice, but acoustic instrument design has remained virtually frozen. Although mass production methods are frequently applied to musical instrument production nowadays, the designs have changed minimally, which makes the musical landscape unique. Additive manufacturing (AM) provides novel possibilities that can be of interest in music and musical research. In this article, we present the results of five case studies on AM use within specific musical niches. Each niche represents a unique market space and cultural background that is critical in tradition-oriented environments. Starting from the analysis of these five case studies, we extract lessons on AM application to unique environments. From these, we discuss the potential for AM-driven innovation in design and production in general and propose a holistic evaluation matrix for identifying suitable market niches.
Com o objetivo de avaliar as características físico-químicas e colorimétricas de vinhos finos tintos e brancosproduzidos no Brasil, foram determinados diversos parâmetros exigidos pela legislação brasileira, além decompostos fenólicos totais, antocianinas, L*, a*, b*, C* e h. Apesar dos valores relativamente altos de pH e daacidez volátil de algumas amostras, todos os vinhos apresentaram os parâmetros analíticos dentro dos limitesfixados pela legislação brasileira para bebidas alcoólicas, exceto o teor de açúcar residual total das amostras devinho tinto analisadas. Com relação às amostras de vinho branco, a amostra Cb (Vale do São Francisco) foi aúnica que apresentou alteração na relação álcool em peso/extrato seco reduzido. As amostras de vinhos tintosapresentaram boa saturação da cor (C*), enquanto as amostras de vinhos brancos alcançaram níveis elevadosde luminosidade (L*). Não foi possível obter uma discriminação das amostras com base apenas na variedadede uva utilizada ou na sua procedência geográfica através da Análise de Componentes Principais.
Bu araştırmanın amacı, gastrofizik yaklaşımı çerçevesinde görsel ve işitsel unsurların tat algısına etkisinin belirlenmesidir. Araştırmanın problemi, bir atıştırmalık olan patlamış mısırın tuzluluk algısının değerlendirmesinde rengin ve tuzlu tadı anımsatan film müziğinin etkisinin incelenmesidir. Araştırmanın yönteminde, ön test araştırması ile 4 ayrı deney tasarımı kullanılmıştır. Deneyde kullanılan tekrarlı ölçümlerde, görsel unsurlardan olan renk etkisinin anlaşılması amacıyla şeffaf, pembe ve mavi renkli kâseler, işitsel unsurlardan ise tuzlu film müziği deneye dâhil edilmiştir. Deneyde, renk ve ses etkisinin daha iyi anlaşılması adına patlamış mısırlar hem tuzlu hem de tuzsuz olarak servis edilmiştir. Araştırmanın örneklemini Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Turizm Fakültesi Gastronomi ve Mutfak Sanatları Bölümünde lisans eğitimi gören 96 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında yapılan deneyin analizinde birbirinden bağımsız grupların tekrarlayan ölçümleri bulunduğundan karma desenli ANOVA analizi tercih edilmiş ve karma desenli ANOVA’nın varsayımlarından olan normallik, varyansların homojenliği testleri ve frekans analizleri gerçekleştirilmiştir. Analizler sonucunda tuzluluk algısı değerlendirmelerinde, müzik+renk etkisinin, sadece renk etkisine kıyasla daha yüksek bir ortalamaya sahip olduğu bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır. Katılımcılar tarafından mavi kâselerde servis edilen patlamış mısırın şeffaf ve pembe kâselere göre daha tuzlu algılandığı belirlenmiştir (p0.05). Pembe kâselerde servis edilen patlamış mısırın ise algılanan tuzluluk oranı bakımından diğer kâselere oranla daha az tuzlu olarak algılandığı bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır (p
Drinking (as well as eating) represents a fundamental multisensory experience of our lives. Recent studies have proposed the implementation of multisensory contexts to improve the taste perception of food and beverages. This topic becomes relevant when considering the possibility of promoting the consumption of healthy beverages (e.g., orange juice). Only a few studies have concentrated on the multisensory features of the indoor environment (e.g., acoustic and visual context) reporting effects on the perception of healthy beverages. This study investigates how multisensory indoor environments modify the taste perception while drinking orange juice. By controlling the room microclimate and combining the correlated colour temperature of lighting (i.e. warm and cool) and the background wall colour (i.e., red, green) in the Sens i-Lab, with different audio stimuli (i.e. low and high-frequency pure tone), participants were invited to taste the low-sugar orange juice and to rate the fruit juice aroma, sweetness, sourness, bitterness, freshness, and thickness. The results showed that listening to a high-frequency tone in an environment with warm lighting and a red background increases the sweetness perception of orange juice compared to the control environment. In addition, compared to the control condition, the juice aroma was rated more intense in almost all multisensory conditions and thicker with cool lighting and a green background while listening to a low-frequency tone. Our findings suggested that the development of multisensory design can contribute to interior design strategies and design innovation in food architecture, where people can improve their taste in healthy foods and beverages.
Our brain constantly combines multisensory information from our surrounding environment. Odors for instance are often perceived with visual cues; these sensations interact to form our own subjective experience. This integration process can have a profound impact on the resulting experience and can alter our subjective reality. Crossmodal correspondences are the consistent associations between stimulus features in different sensory modalities. These correspondences are presumed to be bidirectional in nature and have been shown to influence our perception in a variety of different sensory modalities. Vision is dominant in our multisensory perception and can influence how we perceive information in our other senses, including olfaction. We explored the effect that different odors have on human color perception by presenting olfactory stimuli while asking observers to adjust a color patch to be devoid of hue (neutral gray task). We found a shift in the perceived neutral gray point to be biased toward warmer colors. Four out of five of our odors also trend toward their expected crossmodal correspondences. For instance, when asking observers to perform the neutral gray task while presenting the smell of cherry, the perceptually achromatic stimulus was biased toward a red-brown. Using an achromatic adjustment task, we were able to demonstrate a small but systematic effect of the presence of odors on human color perception.
Historically, the human sense of smell has been regarded as the odd stepchild of the senses, especially compared to the sensory bravado of seeing, touching, and hearing. The idea that the human olfaction has little to contribute to our experience of the world is commonplace, though with the emergence of COVID-19 there has rather been a sea change in this understanding. An ever increasing body of work has convincingly highlighted the keen capabilities of the human nose and the sophistication of the human olfactory system. Here, we provide a concise overview of the neuroscience of human olfaction spanning the last 10–12 years, with focus on the peripheral and central mechanisms that underlie how odor information is processed, packaged, parceled, predicted, and perturbed to serve odor-guided behaviors. We conclude by offering some guideposts for harnessing the next 10–12 years of olfactory research in all its shapes and forms.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 75 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
In this paper we analyze some key concepts and problems in olfaction and argue that many concepts borrowed from vision are not helpful in elucidating the functions of human olfaction. This is illustrated with several examples. Olfaction is rarely in the focus of human attention. Olfaction is, compared to vision, a ‘hidden sense’, but still guides many important behaviors by way of unattended unconscious olfactory perception and implicit memory. Not all olfactory processing, however, is of an unconscious nature. Flavors, and the pleasures gained from them, are most often consciously perceived. These are experiences mostly determined by olfaction, taste, touch and chemesthesis. Our analyses lead us to conclude that olfaction should not be modeled on vision, neither conceptually nor with respect to the problems solved by the two senses. A critical examination of the ecological and physical constraints of olfaction and the other senses should be given priority. Such analyses will further our understanding of which problems are solved by the different senses and how they collaborate to guide us through the world.
Buoyed by research in philosophy and moral psychology, virtue ethics has become increasingly influential in the literature. This renewed attention has also led to the development of the situationist challenge: empirical studies undermine the idea that we possess character traits that allow us to act virtuously across contexts. A promising reply to the situationist challenge is that we should not conceive of virtues as traits. Instead, we should conceive of them as expert skills. Here, I raise a new challenge for those who go in for the (s)kill against situationism. Expert skills are brittle, rather than flexible or robust. They typically develop in narrow ways and can falter in novel situations. Experts also sometimes perform worse than novices in novel situations. Such findings present a problem for the virtue-as-skill thesis. Someone who will help others only in narrow contexts or who causes more harm than good does not exemplify virtue. The brittleness of expert skills means that virtue theorists must either (a) abandon the idea that virtues explain behaviour across contexts or (b) abandon the idea that virtues are expert skills. It’s brittle virtue or bust – you can’t teach an old dogma new skills.
This essay aims to review and clarify an emerging consensus among philosophers of time: that belief in the passage of time is not a matter of illusion but rather the result of a variety of cognitive error. I argue that this error is best described in terms of psychological projection, properly understood. A close analysis of varieties of projection reveals how well this phenomenon accounts for belief in dynamic temporal passage and the objective becoming of events. A projectivist account of belief in the passage of time is, in actuality, already predominant in contemporary philosophy of time; but the language of illusion still used by many theorists is hampering recognition of the nature of the solution as well as the recent progress towards consensus.
People occasionally associate color (e.g., hue) with sound (e.g., pitch). Previous studies have reported color–sound associations, which are examples of crossmodal correspondences. However, the association between both semantic and perceptual factors with color/sound discrimination in crossmodal correspondence remains unclear. To clarify this, three psychological experiments were conducted, where Stroop tasks were used to assess automatic process on the association. We focused on the crossmodal correspondence between color (Experiment 1)/color word (Experiment 2) and sound. Participants discriminated the color/word or the sound presented simultaneously. The results showed the color–sound bidirectional enhancement/interference of the response by certain associations of the crossmodal correspondence (blue-drop and yellow-shiny) in both experiments. These results suggest that these Stroop effects were caused by the semantic factor (color category) and the perceptual factor (color appearance) was not necessary for the current results. In Experiment 3, response modulation by color labeling was investigated to clarify the influence of subjective labeling. Participants labeled a presented ambiguous color, which was a hue specification between two specific colors, by listening to the sound. The results revealed that the Stroop effect was caused only when the presented color was classified as the color related to the presented sound. This showed that subjective labeling played a role in the regulation of the effect of crossmodal correspondences. These findings should contribute to the explanation of crossmodal correspondences through semantic mediation.
The previous chapters described the relevance and impact of individual sensory stimuli on consumer behavior. In retail, however, the reality is considerably more complex. Consumers inevitably perceive retail environments and products in a multisensory way (i.e., simultaneously with all their senses). Thus, the presence of one sensory stimulus (e.g., scent) can influence how consumers react to another stimulus (e.g., music). Specifically, stimuli that appeal to different sensory modalities reinforce or complement one another, thereby influencing the perception and evaluation of the retail environment, the retailer, individual products, or even brands. Combining a scent with specific background music can, for example, lead to an enhanced shopping experience compared to using scent or music in isolation. In general, a multisensory approach has stronger effects on consumers than simply adding other stimuli appealing to the same sensory modality.
Neuroscientific research on emotion has developed dramatically over the past decade. The cognitive neuroscience of human emotion, which has emerged as the new and thriving area of 'affective neuroscience', is rapidly rendering existing overviews of the field obsolete. This handbook provides a comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative survey of knowledge and topics investigated in this cutting-edge field. It covers a range of topics, from face and voice perception to pain and music, as well as social behaviors and decision making. The book considers and interrogates multiple research methods, among them brain imaging and physiology measurements, as well as methods used to evaluate behavior and genetics. Editors Jorge Armony and Patrik Vuilleumier have enlisted well-known and active researchers from more than twenty institutions across three continents, bringing geographic as well as methodological breadth to the collection. This timely volume will become a key reference work for researchers and students in the growing field of neuroscience.
This text proposes a series of reflections that are in line with the work carried out with Douglas Hofstadter on analogical processes. The author believes that these reflections are both deeply compatible with Gilles Fauconnier's ideas and highlight the importance of his contributions. More specifically, this text addresses three topics. The first one questions the possibility of literal perception and instead makes this assumption psychologically unlikely and supports an interpretive perspective stating that concepts interpose themselves in all mental activities, from the most trivial perception to the most abstract ideas. The second topic concerns the links between analogy and categorization, claiming that the distinctions drawn between these notions in common sense and academic traditions dissolve as analysis deepens. The third topic emphasizes the counterintuitive entanglements between form and content, encouraging the transcendence of this dualism and conclude by proposing some educational perspectives inspired by these lines of thought.
The classification of color is important in the management and evaluation of red wine color. Nevertheless, current reports have not given a sound solution. A novel scheme for the quantitative classification of red wine color from the perspective of micro and macro levels was proposed in this work. The overall color performance of 119 representative red wine samples was visualized and classified into 125 micro-classifications according to the partition of the chromaticity and lightness of the wine color. Considering the evolution of red wine color, quantitative macro-classification of the color of the wine samples was explored, and six macro-classifications were obtained. These few classifications determine the extent of aging and aging potential of colors between different red wines well. The performance of this approach was further verified by another set of 56 red wine samples. This efficient and easy-to-implement approach is expected to be helpful in the digital and visual color management, control, evaluation, comparison, and prediction of red wines.
The primary goals of this study were to identify the influence of temperature and drying time on pretreated cassava flour, as well as the optimal settings for the factors and to analyze the microstructure of cassava flour. The experiment was designed using the response surface methodology with central composite design and the superimposition approach in order to assess the effect of drying temperature (45.85–74.14 °C) and drying time (3.96–11.03 h) and the optimal drying conditions of the cassava flour investigated. Soaking and blanching were applied as pretreatments to freshly sliced cassava tubers. The value moisture content of cassava flour was between 6.22% and 11.07%, whereas the observed whiteness index in cassava flour ranged from 72.62 to 92.67 in all pretreated cassava flour samples. Through analysis of variance, each drying factor, their interaction, and all squared terms had a substantial impact on moisture content and whiteness index. The optimized values for drying temperature and drying time for each pretreated cassava flour were 70 °C and 10 h, respectively. The microstructure showed a non-gelatinized, relatively homogeneous in size and shape sample with pretreatment soaked in distilled water at room temperature. These study results are relevant to the development of more sustainable cassava flour production.
The Glories method and CIE L*a*b* color space are poorly correlated in the light red high-saturation color area. Non-uniformities in the CIE L*a*b* color space have led to the CIEDE2000 formula, while the Euclidean color distance is still used in wine research. In this study, 112 white and red wines were examined to compare the Glories method, CIE L*a*b, and human perception using monovarietal wines from different grape varieties. The objective of this study was to investigate which of the two methods and which parameter of each method better aligned with human perception. The visual color threshold was re-evaluated with the CIEDE2000 formula and triangle testing. CIE L*a*b* more closely matched the human perception, elevating the use of CIE L*a*b* over the use of the Glories method. Visual color thresholds were better expressed with CIEDE2000 but still varied depending upon the color area in the CIE L*a*b* color space.
In the automotive industry, marketers often use color to promote a product that looks most attractive. In many cases, chromatic colors such as red and blue are adopted. However, there is a divergence from actual consumer behavior. In the automobile market, conservative colors tend to be sold better. Achromatic colors (white, black, gray, and silver) occupy approximately 80% in the color-coded sales of automobile exterior designs. The colors marketers use for promotion and the colors that consumers decide to purchase are different. However, consistency and empathy based on realism are emphasized in marketing communication research. This effect increases when the world of communication is understood to be similar to the real world or less fictitious. Therefore, the model used for communication should be a person whose situation is similar to that of a consumer. It can be inferred that the influence of the person appointed for communication is also suitable for the product. This study evaluated the following hypothesis in Japanese and American automobile markets; “Consumers who own cars with achromatic exterior body evaluate achromatic color more attractive for marketing communications.” As a result of randomized controlled trial in an online survey environment, the hypothesis was supported. As a practical implication, this study shows that popular and promotional colors should be unified. Traditionally, in business, it has been customary to use colors that practitioners consider the most attractive to show products for marketing communication. However, it is more effective to adopt product colors that match the consumers’ usage situation.KeywordsAutomobile IndustryCMFMarketing CommunicationProduct DesignPromotional ColorSensory Marketing
Background
Olfactory information can be associated with color information. Researchers have investigated the role of descriptive ratings of odors on odor-color associations. Research into these associations should also focus on the differences in odor types. We aimed to identify the odor descriptive ratings that can predict odor-color corresponding formation, and predict features of the associated colors from the ratings taking into consideration the differences in the odor types.
Methods
We assessed 13 types of odors and their associated colors in participants with a Japanese cultural background. The associated colors from odors in the CIE L*a*b* space were subjectively evaluated to prevent the priming effect from selecting color patches. We analyzed the data using Bayesian multilevel modeling, which included the random effects of each odor, for investigating the effect of descriptive ratings on associated colors. We investigated the effects of five descriptive ratings, namely Edibility , Arousal , Familiarity , Pleasantness , and Strength on the associated colors.
Results
The Bayesian multilevel model indicated that the odor description of Edibility was related to the reddish hues of associated colors in three odors. Edibility was related to the yellow hues of colors in the remaining five odors. The Arousal description was related to the yellowish hues in two odors. The Strength of the tested odors was generally related to the color lightness. The present analysis could contribute in investigating the influence of the olfactory descriptive rating that anticipates the associated color for each odor.
Odor and color are strongly associated. Numerous studies demonstrate consistent odor-color associations, as well as effects of color on odor perception and language. Yet, we know little about how these associations arise. Here, we test whether language is a possible mediator of odor-color associations, specifically whether odor-color associations are mediated by implicit odor naming. In two experiments, we used an interference paradigm to prevent the verbalization of odors during an odor-color matching task. If participants generate color associations subsequent to labeling an odor, interfering with verbalization during the task should affect the ability to make color associations. In Experiment 1, contrary to our hypothesis, verbal interference did not affect odor-color matches. However, since performance accuracy on the verbal interference task was high, it is possible our task did not sufficiently disrupt verbal processing. In Experiment 2, we, therefore, used an active verbal interference task, and still found no difference across interference conditions. Odor naming accuracy, odor familiarity, and odor pleasantness, however, did predict odor-color matches. This suggests that although color associations are related to semantic factors, they are not generated by recruiting odor labels in the moment. Overall, our results do not provide evidence that language plays an online role in odor-color associations, instead, they are consistent with the claim that language may have shaped associations during development.
In the present study, we examined whether the cross-modal effect can be obtained between odors and colors, which has been confirmed under olfactory recognizable conditions and also occurs under unrecognizable conditions. We used two flavors of red fruits such as strawberries and tomatoes for this purpose. We also aimed to compare whether similar cross-modal effects could be achieved by setting the flavors at recognizable (liminal) and unrecognizable (subliminal) concentrations in the experiment. One flavor at a normal concentration (0.1%, Liminal condition) and one at a concentration below the subliminal threshold (0.015%, Subliminal condition), were presented, and the color that resembled the smell most closely from among the 10 colors, was selected by participants. Except for the subliminal tomato condition, each odor was significantly associated with at least one color ( p < 0.01). Participants selected pink and red for liminal strawberry (0.1%) ( p < 0.05), pink for subliminal strawberry (0.015%) ( p < 0.05), and orange for liminal tomato (0.1%) ( p < 0.05), but there was no color selected for subliminal tomato (0.015%) ( p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that the flavor of tomato produced a cross-modal effect in liminal conditions, but not in subliminal conditions. On the other hand, the results of the present study suggest that the flavor of strawberries produces a cross-modal effect even under subliminal conditions. This study showed that cross-modal effects might exist, even at unrecognizable levels of flavor.
A person’s preference to select or reject certain meals is influenced by several aspects, including colour. In this paper, we study the relevance of food colour for such preferences. To this end, a set of images of meals is processed by an automatic method that associates mood adjectives that capture such meal preferences. These adjectives are obtained by analyzing the colour palettes in the image, using a method based in Kobayashi’s model of harmonic colour combinations. The paper also validates that the colour palettes calculated for each image are harmonic by developing a rating model to predict how much a user would like the colour palettes obtained. This rating is computed using a regression model based on the COLOURlovers dataset implemented to learn users’ preferences. Finally, the adjectives associated automatically with images of dishes are validated by a survey which was responded by 178 people and demonstrates that the labels are adequate. The results obtained in this paper have applications in tourism marketing, to help in the design of marketing multimedia material, especially for promoting restaurants and gastronomic destinations.
Abstract In this study, we investigated the influence of the olfactive stimulus on visual attention. Two groups of 30 subjects participated in two experiments. Both experiments presented two arrays of fruits stimulus intercalated by an olfactive intervention. The stimulus was received in the form of images by the first group and in the form of words by the second group. An eye-tracking device monitored the timekeeping of visual attention dispensed in each stimulus. The results showed that olfactive priming influenced visual attention in both cases but with a greater degree in the images stimulus group. This study shows for the first time that image information is more susceptible to priming olfactive information than wording information. This effect may be associated with the formation of mental images in working memory, aroused by fragrances.
The influence of the context on the perception of food is studied by having a group of 57 french oenology students tasting the same wine in two different packages (common table wine VDT and grand cru classé GCC). This context modification does not affect the stimulus itself but only the cognitive part of the perception. Results show that the packaging induces different judgments for the same wine. All the tasters give different marks for both wines and the GCC wine has significant (52/57) best records. Lexical analysis of wine tasting comments in both contexts reveals totally opposite describing behaviors of the tasters, most of the subjects looking for faults in the wine presented as VDT and seekink qualities in the GCC labeled wine. Subjects tend to adjust their sensory perceptions to the quality suggested by the label. From a sensory analysis point of view, our results emphasize the role of context in food perception. The perceived flavour of the wine is different when it is tasted in a different context. From a cognitive point of view, these data suggest that the conscious perceptive representation of the food contains information from different origins and that a subject is not able to selectively extract chemiosensory information from this global representation.
It is well established that for most people linguistic processing is primarily a left hemisphere activity, whereas recent evidence has shown that basic odor perception is more lateralized to the right hemisphere. Importantly, under certain conditions, emotional responding also shows right hemisphere laterality. Hedonic (pleasantness) assessments constitute basic level emotional responses. Given that olfaction is predominantly ipsilateral in function, it was hypothesized that odor pleasantness evaluations may be accentuated by right nostril perception and that odor naming would be superior with left nostril perception. To test this prediction we presented eight familiar neutral–mildly pleasant odors for subjects to sniff through the left and right nostrils. Subjects smelled each odor twice (once through each nostril) at two different sessions, separated by 1 week. At each session subjects provided pleasantness, arousal and naming responses to each odorant. Results revealed that odors were rated as more pleasant when sniffed through the right nostril and named more correctly when sniffed through the left. No effects for arousal were obtained. These findings are consistent with previously demonstrated neural laterality in the processing of olfaction, emotion and language, and suggest that a local and functional convergence may exist between olfaction and emotional processing.
The popular press has recently reported that managers of retail and service outlets are diffusing scents into their stores to create more positive environments and develop a competitive advantage. These efforts are occurring despite there being no scholarly research supporting the use of scent in store environments. The authors present a review of theoretically relevant work from environmental psychology and olfaction research and a study examining the effects of ambient scent in a simulated retail environment. In the reported study, the authors find a difference between evaluations of and behaviors in a scented store environment and those in an unscented store environment. Their findings provide guidelines for managers of retail and service outlets concerning the benefits of scenting store environments.
We critically review the cognitive literature on olfactory memory and identify the similarities and differences between odor memory and visual-verbal memory. We then analyze this literature using criteria from a multiple memory systems approach to determine whether olfactory memory can be considered to be a separate memory system. We conclude that olfactory memory has a variety of important distinguishing characteristics, but that more data are needed to confer this distinction. We suggest methods for the study of olfactory memory that should make a resolution on the separate memory system hypothesis possible while simultaneously advancing a synthetic understanding of olfaction and cognition.
: To test the claim that odors are the 'best' cues to memory, several cross-modal experiments were conducted in which odors were compared with verbal, visual, tactile and musical stimuli as associated memory cues. Each experiment comprised two sessions (encoding and retrieval) separated by 48 hr. At the encoding session, a series of stimuli were incidentally associated to a set of emotionally arousing pictures. At the retrieval session, memory accu racy and emotionality were assessed. Across experiments, results revealed that odors were equivalent to other stimuli in their ability to elicit accurate recall, but that odor-evoked memories were always more emotional. Notably, emotional responses did not vary as a function of stimulus type at encoding. These data indicate that emotional saliency, rather than accuracy, is responsible for the impression that odors are superior reminders, and that retrieval processes (cf. encoding processes) are responsible for the distinctive emotionality of odor-evoked memories.
Our knowledge about the variability of cerebral language lateralization is derived from studies of patients with brain lesions and thus possible secondary reorganization of cerebral functions. In healthy right-handed subjects 'atypical', i.e. right hemisphere language dominance, has generally been assumed to be exceedingly rare. To test this assumption we measured language lateralization in 188 healthy subjects with moderate and strong right-handedness (59% females) by a new non-invasive, quantitative technique previously validated by direct comparison with the intracarotid amobarbital procedure. During a word generation task the averaged hemispheric perfusion differences within the territories of the middle cerebral arteries were determined. (i) The natural distribution of language lateralization was found to occur along a bimodal continuum. (ii) Lateralization was equivalent in men and women. (iii) Right hemisphere dominance was found in 7.5% of subjects. These findings indicate that atypical language dominance in healthy right-handed subjects of either sex is considerably more common than previously suspected.
In Experiment 1, some odorous solutions (e.g., strawberry) were rated as smelling stronger when colored (e.g., red) than when colorless. Experiment 2 showed this effect to be due to a perceptual change rather than a response to experimental demand characteristics. Experiment 3 showed that the color-induced increase in odor intensity is not due to subjects' preexperimental experience with particular color-odor combinations, because the increase occurred with novel ones. We conclude that color induces a weak olfactory percept that combines with odorant-induced percepts. The effect may be due to conditioning or may be the result of residual intersensory neural connections left over from infancy.
Examines research in cognitive psychology, which has in the past paid little attention to the olfactory modality. But there is now a significant body of literature on the role of the olfactory system in memory and cognition. Human beings possess an excellent ability to detect and discriminate odors, but they typically have great difficulty in identifying particular odorants. This results partly from the use of an improverished and idiosyncratic language to describe olfactory experiences, which are normally encoded either in a rudimentary sensory form or as part of a complex but highly specific biographical episode. Consequently, linguistic processes play only a very limited role in olfactory processing, whereas hedonic factors seem to be of considerable importance.
In the first session, two groups of male and female subjects were given a stressful task involving the completion of eleven WAIS block patterns under time limitations. A low intensity of a neutral odour (TUA) was present for half of the subjects. During a second session several days later, subjects completed a mood rating scale and then entered a room, where the odour of TUA was present, to judge a series of photographs of people and complete a second mood rating scale. During the first session female subjects completed significantly fewer block patterns, and completed fewer correct designs. In the second session, female subjects who had experienced TUA odour in the stress condition showed an increase in anxiety ratings. They also had higher ratings scores when judging the photographs. In contrast, subjects who did not experience odour during the stress session became calmer during the second session. None of the female subjects reported perceiving the odour irn either session. As both pairing and elicitation occurred at low levels of awareness, the study demonstrates how odours might acquire values through pairing with emotionally significant events.
We report here the use of positron emission tomography (PET) to reveal that the primary visual cortex is activated when subjects close their eyes and visualize objects. The size of the image is systematically related to the location of maximal activity, which is as expected because the earliest visual areas are spatially organized. These results were only evident, however, when imagery conditions were compared to a non-imagery baseline in which the same auditory cues were presented (and hence the stimuli were controlled); when a resting baseline was used (and hence brain activation was uncontrolled), imagery activation was obscured because of activation in visual cortex during the baseline condition. These findings resolve a debate in the literature about whether imagery activates early visual cortex and indicate that visual mental imagery involves 'depictive' representations, not solely language-like descriptions. Moreover, the fact that stored visual information can affect processing in even the earliest visual areas suggests that knowledge can fundamentally bias what one sees.
Behavioral and perceptual responses to food depend on a convergence between gustatory, olfactory, and visual information. In previous studies a secondary cortical taste area has been found in the caudolateral orbitofrontal cortex of the primate. Furthermore, neurons with olfactory responses have been recorded in a more medial part of the orbitofrontal cortex, and visual inputs have been shown to influence neurons in an intermediate region. These studies suggest that the orbitofrontal cortex may act as a region for convergence of multiple sensory modalities including chemosensation. In the present study neurons throughout the caudal two-thirds of the orbitofrontal cortex of the macaque were tested to gustatory, to olfactory, and to visual stimulation to investigate whether convergence occurs. Neurons in this region of cortex were found that responded to stimulation of the taste, olfactory, or visual system. In addition, some neurons were found with bimodal responses, responding for example to both taste and olfactory, or taste and visual stimuli. Since these multimodal neurons were found in very close proximity to unimodal neurons, and the unimodal sensory neurons were intermingled, it is possible that the orbitofrontal cortex represents the first cortical area of convergence for these three modalities in primates.
Cross-modal sensory correspondences between vision and audition have been well described, but those between vision and olfaction have not. In Experiment 1, a method previously used to relate color names, mood names, and line elements was replicated and extended to describe odors by color. Significant color characterizations were found for all 20 test odors. Test-retest correlations showed color-odor correspondences to be as stable as nonodor measures after 2 years. In Experiment 2, new subjects matched Munsell color chips to the test odors. Thirteen odors had characteristic hues; there was significant variation in chroma and value. The selected Munsell hues corresponded to the color names endorsed in Experiment 1. Together, these experiments suggest the existence of robust correspondences between vision and olfaction.
Although the perceptual response to environmental odors can be quite variable, such variation has often been attributed to differences in individual sensitivity. An information-processing analysis of odor perception, however, treats both the reception and the subsequent evaluation of odor information as determinants of the perceptual response. Two experiments investigated whether a factor that influenced the evaluation stage affected the judgement of odor quality and the degree of adaptation to the odor. People were surveyed in order to measure their tacit perceptions of the healthfulness or hazardousness of nine common olfactory stimuli, and the instructional context influenced quality perception. In a second experiment subjects were exposed to an ambient odor under one of three different conditions, and odorant characterization influenced the degree of adaptation to the odor. Subjects who were led to believe the odor was a natural, healthy extract showed adaptation; those told that the odor was potentially hazardous showed apparent sensitization; while those told that the odor was a common olfactory test odorant showed a mixed pattern: some exhibited adaptation, whereas others showed sensitization. However, detection thresholds obtained before and after exposure showed adaptation effects that are characteristic of continuous exposure. These findings raise the possibility that cognitive factors may be modulating the overall sensory perception of odor exposure (i) for some individual who exhibit extreme sensitivity to odors and (ii) in situations where adaptation to environmental odors is expected but does not occur.
This study examined whether a previously established (D. G. Laing & G. W. Francis, 1989) limited capacity to discriminate and identify the components of olfactory mixtures resulted from the participants' lack of familiarity with the task, training designed to optimize cognitive and perceptual performance, or professional experience in odor discrimination. The participants were a trained panel of 10 women (23-43 years old), and an expert panel of 8 male professional perfumers and flavorists (25-55 years old). The individual chemical stimuli were 7 common dissimilar odorants of equal moderate intensity. An air dilution olfactometer delivered a single odorant or a mixture containing up to 5 odorants. The results indicated that for both panels only 3 or 4 components of a complex mixture could be discriminated and identified and that this capacity could not be increased by training. Therefore, the limit may be imposed physiologically or by processing constraints.
To test the claim that odors are the 'best' cues to memory, several cross-modal experiments were conducted in which odors were compared with verbal, visual, tactile and musical stimuli as associated memory cues. Each experiment comprised two sessions (encoding and retrieval) separated by 48 hr. At the encoding session, a series of stimuli were incidentally associated to a set of emotionally arousing pictures. At the retrieval session, memory accuracy and emotionality were assessed. Across experiments, results revealed that odors were equivalent to other stimuli in their ability to elicit accurate recall, but that odor-evoked memories were always more emotional. Notably, emotional responses did not vary as a function of stimulus type at encoding. These data indicate that emotional saliency, rather than accuracy, is responsible for the impression that odors are superior reminders, and that retrieval processes (cf. encoding processes) are responsible for the distinctive emotionality of odor-evoked memories.
The functional anatomy of perceptual and semantic processings for odors was studied using positron emission tomography (PET). The first experiment was a pretest in which 71 normal subjects were asked to rate 185 odorants in terms of intensity, familiarity, hedonicity, and comestibility and to name the odorants. This pretest was necessary to select the most appropriate stimuli for the different cognitive tasks of the second experiment. The second one was a PET experiment in which 15 normal subjects were scanned using the water bolus method to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during the performance in three conditions. In the first (perceptual) condition, subjects were asked to judge whether an odor was familiar or not. In the second (semantic) condition, subjects had to decide whether an odor corresponded to a comestible item or not. In the third (detection) condition, subjects had to judge whether the perceived stimulus was made of an odor or was just air. It was hypothetized that the three tasks were hierarchically organized from a superficial detection level to a deep semantic level. Odorants were presented with an air-flow olfactometer, which allowed the stimulations to be synchronized with breathing. Subtraction of activation images obtained between familiarity and control judgments revealed that familiarity judgments were mainly associated with the activity of the right orbito-frontal area, the subcallosal gyrus, the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left superior frontal gyrus, and the anterior cingulate (Brodmann's areas 11, 25, 47, 9, and 32, respectively). The comestibility minus familiarity comparison showed that comestibility judgments selectively activated the primary visual areas. In contrast, a decrease in rCBF was observed in these same visual areas for familiarity judgments and in the orbito-frontal area for comestibility judgments. These results suggest that orbito-frontal and visual regions interact in odor processing in a complementary way, depending on the task requirements.
Functional MRI (fMRI) was used to examine gender effects on brain activation during a language comprehension task. A large number of subjects (50 women and 50 men) was studied to maximize the statistical power to detect subtle differences between the sexes. To estimate the specificity of findings related to sex differences, parallel analyses were performed on two groups of randomly assigned subjects. Men and women showed very similar, strongly left lateralized activation patterns. Voxel-wise tests for group differences in overall activation patterns demonstrated no significant differences between women and men. In further analyses, group differences were examined by region of interest and by hemisphere. No differences were found between the sexes in lateralization of activity in any region of interest or in intrahemispheric cortical activation patterns. These data argue against substantive differences between men and women in the large-scale neural organization of language processes.
We investigated whether odors can become conditioned to emotionally salient experiences such that when later encountered they influence performance consistent with a previously associated event. To test this hypothesis, 5-year-olds were given the experience of failure/frustration on a cognitive maze in a room scented with fragrance and later given another cognitively challenging test in a different room scented with either the same odor, a different odor, or no odor. Results revealed that subjects who performed the test in the presence of the same odor as the maze task did significantly worse than subjects in any other group. Performance in the different odor and the no odor groups were equivalent. Facial expressions and verbal remarks made during the maze task indicated a predominant display of negative affect. These findings show that odors can become conditioned to experiential states and when later encountered have directional influences on behavior.
It is well established that for most people linguistic processing is primarily a left hemisphere activity, whereas recent evidence has shown that basic odor perception is more lateralized to the right hemisphere. Importantly, under certain conditions, emotional responding also shows right hemisphere laterality. Hedonic (pleasantness) assessments constitute basic level emotional responses. Given that olfaction is predominantly ipsilateral in function, it was hypothesized that odor pleasantness evaluations may be accentuated by right nostril perception and that odor naming would be superior with left nostril perception. To test this prediction we presented eight familiar neutral-mildly pleasant odors for subjects to sniff through the left and right nostrils. Subjects smelled each odor twice (once through each nostril) at two different sessions, separated by 1 week. At each session subjects provided pleasantness, arousal and naming responses to each odorant. Results revealed that odors were rated as more pleasant when sniffed through the right nostril and named more correctly when sniffed through the left. No effects for arousal were obtained. These findings are consistent with previously demonstrated neural laterality in the processing of olfaction, emotion and language, and suggest that a local and functional convergence may exist between olfaction and emotional processing.
Folk wisdom dictates that odours are especially powerful reminders of autobiographical experience, an effect which has become known as the Proust phenomenon. This paper reviews the relevant literature to determine whether there is any substantive evidence to support this view. Different methodologies have been adopted in addressing this issue, but the most revealing and ecologically valid have been the few studies which have examined naturally formed autobiographical memories. From these data, there is at least preliminary evidence that olfactory stimuli can cue autobiographical memories more effectively than cues from other sensory modalities. Explanations for these effects can be invoked from accepted principles in contemporary cognitive psychology.
Reinert Max - "Lexical worlds" and their "logic" through the statistical study of a body of nightmare narratives.
The French school of data analysis, strongly influenced during the seventies by the work of J.P. Benzécri, owes much to his interest in language data. The development of desk-top publishing and the spreading of texts thanks to computers have revitalized this line of research by what is usually called the "statistical analysis of textual data" (Lebart, Salem, 1988). In this article, the author presents his work and questions in the field : the Alceste method and the notion of lexical worlds (which are central to the proposed strategy). The presentation is backed up by a specific application: the analysis of a body of 212 accounts of nightmares.
Similarity-scaling approaches and INDSCAL analysis were used to survey 1976 Bordeaux wines presented to trained assessors in four ways: (i) in clear (colourless) glasses with instructions to assess both appearance and aroma attributes; (ii) in clear glasses with instruction to assess aroma, ignoring visual cues; (iii) in clear glasses but under red illumination; and (iv) in coloured glasses, with instruction to assess similarities using aroma only. The results indicated that when instructed to ignore appearance, assessors as a whole succeeded in doing so, providing similar information to that which was obtained in red glasses or under red illumination. When differences in wines are assessed using both appearance and aroma, there is evidence to indicate that some aroma attributes are being assessed differently from when the assessors could not see the wine or were instructed to ignore its appearance.
The colour of Moravian white wines was evaluated instrumentally, using the trichromatic method, and by sensory analysis. The odour and flavour acceptancies could be predicted very well on the basis of sensory colour evaluation, and less efficiently by instrumental method. Consumers preferred wines with prevailing yellow hue, which was associated with sweet, fruity and floral flavour notes. Green hue was considered a negative factor, without any rational relation to negatively perceived flavour notes. Logarithmic relations fit moderately better experimental results than linear relations.
Olfactory lateralization in humans: a reviewIn the field of human perception, the chemical senses (taste and smell) have received little attention from neuroscience research when compared with auditory, visual and tactile senses. In the case of olfaction, it would appear that the publications over the last few years have been trying to overcome this lack of research. Many investigations have been carried out on lateralization, mainly in relation to specific pathologies (i.e., epilepsy, split-brain, lobotomy, etc.), while there have been few studies of healthy subjects. The results are often contradictory due particularly to special features of the olfactory system. However, consensus is emerging concerning, first, the fact that if both hemispheres are involved in the olfactory process, it is probable that one is more dominant than the other (many studies have revealed a greater impact on the right hemisphere in the treatment of olfactory information, but the dominance has not been clearly established). Second, the simple detection process would appear not to be lateralized whereas the higher-order olfactory tasks which involve memory processes and lexical aspects could be. The exact conditions governing lateralization still require more clarification by systematically taking into consideration the characteristics of the individual subjects, as well as those of the odorant stimuli and the test conditions. Finally, currently available techniques used in neurosciences and particularly cerebral imagery will contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of cerebral asymmetry in olfaction.
The cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in the basal arteries during a word-generation task was assessed by functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) and by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The study investigates how event-related CBFV modulations in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) relate to regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes. Both fMRI and fTCD were used in 13 subjects (7 men, 6 women, aged 21 to 44 years). The maximum difference of relative CBFV changes between the left and right MCA during the word-generation task was used as the language laterality index (LIfTCD). For the fMRI examination during the nearly identical language task, the corresponding index was defined by LIfMRI = 100(NL − NR)/(NL + NR), where NL and NR refer to the numbers of voxels activated in the left and right hemisphere, respectively. The evoked CBFV changes expressed by LIfTCD and the corresponding laterality index, LIfMRI, estimated by fMRI showed a close linear relation (regression analysis: r = 0.95, p < 0.0001). The results of this study demonstrate that language-related velocity changes in the MCAs relate to rCBF increases in a linear fashion. Since the laterality indices assessed by fMRI and fTCD are in such close agreement both techniques can therefore be used in a complementary way.Keywords: Functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound; Evoked flow; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Language
The influence of color on flavor was investigated using 310 untrained volunteers who each judged the flavor of 1 of 8 beverages. Artificially flavored raspberry and orange beverages were either left uncolored, or colored red, orange, or green. Color had a significant influence on the identification of both flavors, although every combination of color and flavor was identified correctly beyond the level expected by chance. Performance was degraded equally when beverages were uncolored, and facilitated equally when beverages were appropriately colored. Unusual color-flavor combinations reduced the identification of raspberry flavor more than that of orange flavor. The influence of color was particularly salient because tasters were aware that the color of the beverage might be inappropriate to its flavor.
Twenty-nine subjects judged the aroma, flavor and texture of five pairs of foods that were normally colored and either uncolored or inappropriately colored. Subjects were tested during conditions of hunger and satiation and approximately half of the subjects were blindfolded during both test sessions. The data revealed that, in general, appropriately colored foods were perceived to have a stronger intensity and better quality aroma and flavor. The effects of color were significant only for aroma judgments although the same trend was evident for flavor judgments. The state of hunger significantly influenced flavor but not aroma judgments but the pattern of changes did not appear to be related to food color. Judgments of texture quality were not affected by the experimental manipulations.
The aim of this study was to link the effects of odorants with the emotional process, through autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses. Taking Ekman's data and our previous results into account, we tried to verify a possible evocation by odorants of some basic emotions, i.e. anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust and happiness. The question investigated was: would it be possible to associate any of these emotions with a pattern of autonomic responses? A total of 15 subjects inhaled five odorants: lavender, ethyl aceto acetate, camphor, acetic acid and butyric acid acting as olfactory stimuli. After inhaling the odorant, subjects were requested to fill out an 11-point hedonic scale to rate its `pleasantness' vs. `unpleasantness'. ANS parameters monitored were skin potential and resistance, skin blood flow and temperature, instantaneous respiratory frequency and instantaneous heart rate. Simultaneous recording of these six autonomic parameters permitted the analysis of phasic responses through specific ANS patterns. An analysis of variance made it possible to differentiate among the five odorants. Two-by-two odorant comparisons for autonomic responses using Tukey's HSD multiple comparison test only permitted differentiation between `pleasant' and `unpleasant' odors. Camphor was differentiated from both types. For instance, long duration responses were associated with `unpleasant' odors whereas camphor elicited intermediate responses. Taking into account each subject's preferential channel, it was possible to associate each ANS pattern with a basic emotion by means of a decision tree. The computation of subjects' responses made it possible to associate an odorant with a basic emotion, over the whole group: lavender elicited mostly `happiness', as did, to a lesser degree ethyl aceto acetate; camphor induced either `happiness', `surprise' or `sadness' according to subjects' past histories; butyric and acetic acids mainly induced negative emotions: `anger' and `disgust'. A high correlation was evidenced between subjects' hedonic evaluation and autonomic estimation of basic emotions. These results obtained from 15 subjects were compared to those observed in two similar experiments. These approaches showed comparable results. Thus, more than 60 subjects showed similar autonomic responses which can be transcribed into basic emotions. Thus, a multiparametric autonomic analysis allows the identification of the quality of the response, i.e. the type of basic emotion in addition to the intensity.
The primary sensory tool for specifying the characteristics of a complex aroma, fragrance, flavor or other odorous mixture of volatiles is descriptive analysis. Descriptive analysis uses a trained panel to specify the intensities of specific attributes, based on a psychophysical model for intensity scaling. However, the use of descriptive techniques for complex and well-blended aromas gives rise to several problems. The psychophysical intensity model based upon independent odor notes may be a poor way to characterize odor experience, bringing into question whether descriptive analysis is an adequate tool for sensory analysis of complex smells. These problems include the following: (1) disagreement among experts in the most prominent odor notes of a single product and other individual differences problems, (2) a correspondence between similarity scaling and intensity scaling, (3) the substitution of applicability measures for intensity, (4) the need to use mid-tier, general odor terms for profiling complex fragrances, and (5) blending and integration effects. Data will be presented on citrus–woody mixtures showing that ratings of similarity and intensity are highly correlated, suggesting a common underlying process for both ratings. A related issue concerns whether odors and their mixtures are perceived as unitary or analyzable percepts. With these same stimuli, the perception of singularity vs. mixed-ness of stimuli is difficult to predict. Sensory scientists should question the validity of descriptive data for such stimuli and avoid the simplistic mistake of equating data with perception. The use of simple and apparently independent intensity scales may produce the illusion that the odor experience is a collection of independent analyzable “notes” when it is not. ©
We investigated the hypothesis that physiological limitations restrict the ability of humans to identify components in an odour mixture. Subjects were trained to identify the test odours, and were required to detect a single highly familiar odorant in stimuli consisting of one, four, eight, twelve, and sixteen odorants by using a selective-attention procedure. The stimuli were delivered by a computer-controlled sixteen-channel air-dilution olfactometer which provided samples of each of the sixteen odorants to be of equal perceived intensity for each subject. Identification fell to chance level when sixteen odorants were present. It is proposed that the profound loss of information was primarily due to inhibition of olfactory receptor cells by the odorants through competitive mechanisms, and the subsequent loss of odour identity through changes in the spatial code that may be used to identify odorants.
In a paired-associate paradigm using odors as stimuli and pictures for multiple-choice responses, the first of two associations to an odor was retained far better than the second over a 2-week period. The persistence of first-learned associations may be responsible for the long lasting nature of odor memories. Subjects reported constructing mediational schemes for mnemonic devices to link the odors and pictures. Latencies for a task of naming odors indicated that although naming odors is difficult, labels could be generated sufficiently fast that they could be employed as mediators in the paired-associate task. A third task investigated the phenomenon of knowing that an odor was familiar but being unable to name it. Subjects in this tip-of-the-nose state were questioned about the odor quality and the name of the odor and were given hints about the name. These subjects were found to have information available about the odor quality but none for the name as found in the tip-of-the-tongue state. However, as in the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, hints given to the subjects in the tip-of-the-nose state often led to the correct name.
The effects of color on odor identification were tested under color appropriate, inappropriate, and blindfolded conditions. Subjects made fewer errors in identifying solutions that were colored appropriately (e.g., red-cherry) than in either the blindfolded condition, where there were no color cues, or the inappropriate color condition (e.g., red-lemon). Identification accuracy was greatest for typical odor-color combinations (e.g., red-cherry) compared with appropriate but nontypical odor-color combinations (e.g., red-watermelon). Response latencies were fastest for odors in the appropriately colored solutions. Subjects also rated appropriate color-odor combinations as most pleasant. However, this effect is probably due to the increase in identification accuracy of the appropriately colored solutions. In all three conditions, correctly identified odors were liked more than odors that were not correctly identified. Thus, color is an important perceptual variable in odor identification because it biases subjects toward a color category that facilitates identification if the color is "correct". This ability to identify an odor in turn influences the affective response to the odor.
The present experiments explore whether there may be some forms of implicit memory for odors. In the first experiment, the elaborateness of olfactory encoding was varied at presentation. For (explicit) recognition memory testing we found positive effects of labeling responses to odors at encoding. Implicit memory measures (temporal and preference judgments) did not reveal reliable effects of prior odor presentation, however. The second experiment corroborated effects of levels of processing on r recognition memory. Again, perceptual or affective judgments remained insensitive for prior odor exposures. Implicit memory could only be detected with verbal measures at the testing stage (labeling accuracy or latency). These results are consistent with the proposal that odor information is represented at different levels of processing that are even with implicit memory measures only partly accessible.
Berglund, B., Berglund, U., Engen, T., & Ekman, G.1 Multidimensional analysis of twenty-one odors. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 131–137.-The present paper reports an experiment on the application of multidimensional scaling to the sense of smell for the purpose of revealing basic psychophysical dimensions of odorants matched in perceived intensity and varying only in perceived quality. The results showed clear evidence for the existence of individual odor spaces, but in apparent contradiction to related studies in the literature individual differences were too large to establish a representative odor space for the whole group. For nearly all individual subjects one of the factors extracted seemed to represent a unique hedonic dimension apparently unrelated to the physical attributes of the odorants. It is suggested that such psychological factors may be as important a basis for the judgment of the similarity of odors as the physical attributes of the odorants. Both the interpretation of multidimensional analysis and the extent to which the sense of smell is analytic or synthetic depend on an understanding of this problem.
Retinal projections to several telencephalic structures have been demonstrated in a wide range of mammalian species following intraocular injections of tritiated amino acids and cholera toxin subunit-B conjugated to horseradish peroxidase. Since these regions are also innervated by olfactory fibers, we investigated the distribution of convergent projections using simultaneous injections of different anterograde tracers in the eye and olfactory bulbs. Convergent projections from the retina and from the olfactory bulbs were observed in the piriform cortex, olfactory tubercle, the cortical region of the medial amygdala, lateral hypothalamus, and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. A few retinal fibers also invade the nucleus of the lateral olfactory tract, the bed nucleus of the accessory olfactory bulb and the diagonal band of Broca. Injections of retrograde tracers in the medial amygdala, the bed nucleus or the lateral hypothalamus shows that the visuo-olfactory convergence mainly involves projections originating from the accessory olfactory bulb, and to a lesser extent from the ventromedial region of the main olfactory bulb. Fewer than 20 retinotelencephalic ganglion cells were identified in the retina, mainly located contralateral to the injection site. Ganglion cells were medium sized and possessed two long slender opposing dendrites. These retinal and olfactory projections could provide an anatomical substrate for the modulation of gonadotropin hormone levels and the olfactory influence on light mediated rhythms related to reproductive physiology.
We previously found that untrained subjects make nonrandom color matches to odors and that the color matches are stable over time (Gilbert, Martin, & Kemp, 1996). Here we investigate further aspects of the cross-modal associations between vision and olfaction: whether perceptual dimensions of odor vary systemically with those of vision. Subjects matched Munsell color chips to five odors presented at three concentrations; they also rated odor intensity. Significant negative correlations between Munsell value and perceived odor intensity were found for three odors. The results suggest that stronger odors were associated with darker colors. The cross-modal relationship between vision and olfaction appears to be dimensional: Color lightness varies inversely with perceived odor intensity. This finding parallels the dimensional relations found between other modalities (e.g., lightness varies with loudness).
The study aimed to re-investigate differences in olfactory thresholds and odor discrimination between the left and right sides in relation to the handedness of healthy subjects. Twenty left- and 20 right-handers participated; all were in excellent health with no indication of any major nasal or health problems, and all were non-smokers. The two groups were comparable in terms of sex and age (left-handers: 11 women, 9 men, median age 25 years; right-handers: 9 women, 11 men, median age 26 years). Odor thresholds did not differ in relation to handedness. However, in the odor discrimination task the left-handers performed significantly better at the left side compared with the right nostril; this pattern was reversed in the right-handers. The data indicate that, similar to other sensory systems, higher olfactory functions exhibit a certain degree of lateralization.
The colour of Moravian white wines was evaluated instrumentally, using the trichromatic method, and by sensory analysis. The odour and flavour acceptances could be predicted very well on the basis of sensory colour evaluation, and less efficiently by instrumental method. Consumers preferred wines with prevailing yellow hue, which was associated with sweet, fruity and floral flavour notes. Green hue was considered a negative factor, without any rational relation to negatively perceived flavour notes. Logarithmic relations fit moderately better experimental results than linear relations.
In previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies we have shown significant regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) increases during olfactory stimulation: unilaterally in the right orbitofrontal cortex, and bilaterally in the inferior frontal and temporal lobes (piriform cortex). In the present study we investigated brain function during different stages of olfactory memory processing.
Subjects were scanned during four tasks: odor encoding, long‐term odor recognition, short‐term odor recognition and a no‐odor sensorimotor control task. Subjects were 12 right‐handed healthy volunteers (6 men, 6 women). Each subject underwent a training session four days prior to their PET scan to learn the six odors required for the long‐term memory scan. PET scans were obtained with a Siemens Exact ECAT HR+ 3D system using H 2 ¹⁵ O methodology and 60‐sec scanning intervals. PET images were coregis tered with each subject's magnetic resonance imaging scan, averaged, and transformed into standard stereotaxic space. Paired image subtractions were analyzed for rCBF changes.
Preliminary analyses have revealed significant activation of the right orbitofrontal region and bilateral piriform cortices during the long‐term odor recognition task compared with the control task. Activation of the right piriform cortex was present during the short‐term recognition task. Brain activity during encoding and retrieval tasks also involved prefrontal corti ces. PET activation studies of memory in other modalities have led to hypotheses of a hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in frontal cortex; the generalizability of this theory to olfactory memory will be discu ssed.
The objective of this study was to demonstrate hemispheric language dominance in normal children. Fifteen normal children were evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using an age-related silent word spelling paradigm. The data were analyzed with the cross-correlation method, and lateralization indices were calculated in language regions as determined by Talairach coordinates. Activation foci were detected in the left inferior frontal area and were strongly lateralized, with language lateralization indices of 0.74 +/- 0.21 (age 7-12 years, nine subjects), and 0.79 +/- 0.18 (13-18 years, six subjects). The indices were similar to those for adults (0.83 +/- 0.21, four subjects). Our study established that language is strongly lateralized to the left hemisphere in children as young as 7 years of age.
The study of hemispheric asymmetry in olfaction in human subjects has given rise to many publications, but the findings have often been contradictory. This study used bilateral electrodermal activity recordings with unilateral stimulation as a measure of functional hemispheric asymmetry. A specific odorant (lavender) was used by monorhinic (single nostril) stimulation on 30 dextral subjects (20 females and 10 males). Intraindividually, the results showed no difference between the two nostrils, but all subjects exhibited a constant direction of electrodermal asymmetry: 20 subjects systematically showed a greater response amplitude for the right hand and 10 subjects systematically showed a greater response amplitude for the left hand, whatever hemisphere stimulated.
The discriminatory capacity of the mammalian olfactory system is such that thousands of volatile chemicals are perceived as having distinct odors. Here we used a combination of calcium imaging and single-cell RT-PCR to identify odorant receptors (ORs) for odorants with related structures but varied odors. We found that one OR recognizes multiple odorants and that one odorant is recognized by multiple ORs, but that different odorants are recognized by different combinations of ORs. Thus, the olfactory system uses a combinatorial receptor coding scheme to encode odor identities. Our studies also indicate that slight alterations in an odorant, or a change in its concentration, can change its "code," potentially explaining how such changes can alter perceived odor quality.
We tested the ability of human subjects to distinguish between members of homologous series of aliphatic alcohols (ethanol to n-octanol) and aldehydes (n-butanal to n-decanal). In a forced-choice triangular test procedure 20 subjects per series were repeatedly presented with all 21 binary combinations of the seven stimuli and asked to identify the bottle containing the odd stimulus. We found (i) that as a group, the subjects performed significantly above chance level in all tasks but two with the alcohols and all tasks but four with the aldehydes, and thus were clearly able to discriminate between most of the odor pairs presented; (ii) marked interindividual differences in discrimination performance, ranging from subjects who were able to significantly distinguish between all 21 odor pairs of a series to subjects who failed to do so with the majority of tasks; and (iii) a significant negative correlation between discrimination performance and structural similarity of odorants in terms of differences in carbon chain length for both homologous series. This suggests that carbon chain length may be one of presumably several determinants of the interaction between stimulus molecule and receptor, and thus may be a molecular property affecting odor quality of aliphatic alcohols and aldehydes.
In the field of human perception, the chemical senses (taste and smell) have received little attention from neuroscience research when compared with auditory, visual and tactile senses. In the case of olfaction, it would appear that the publications over the last few years have been trying to overcome this lack of research. Many investigations have been carried out on lateralization, mainly in relation to specific pathologies (i.e., epilepsy, split-brain, lobotomy, etc.), while there have been few studies of healthy subjects. The results are often contradictory due particularly to special features of the olfactory system. However, consensus is emerging concerning, first, the fact that if both hemispheres are involved in the olfactory process, it is probable that one is more dominant than the other (many studies have revealed a greater impact on the right hemisphere in the treatment of olfactory information, but the dominance has not been clearly established). Second, the simple detection process would appear not to be lateralized whereas the higher-order olfactory tasks which involve memory processes and lexical aspects could be. The exact conditions governing lateralization still require more clarification by systematically taking into consideration the characteristics of the individual subjects, as well as those of the odorant stimuli and the test conditions. Finally, currently available techniques used in neurosciences and particularly cerebral imagery will contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of cerebral asymmetry in olfaction.