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THE THEATER OF THE OLFACTORY MEMORY
— On olfactory consciousness
A presentation given on June 28, 2019 as part of the 23rd annual meeting of the Association
for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) which took place in London ON Canada.
The visual part is here: www.natalieb.ca/talks/natalieb_20190628_ASSC23_visuel.pdf
According to the enactive approach to the mind, we enact the world mentally through our
interactions with it (Thompson, 2010; Varela et al., 1991, Maturana & Varela, 1987). Moreover,
according to Andy Clark (2016), our brain is active all the time, dashing off thousands of predictions
of what we might encounter and thus preparing our body to deal with it. As a consequence, our
brain processes most of the time more inputs from itself than from the outside world (Feldman
Barrett, 2017; Seth, 2015; Hohwy, 2013). But not only the structure of our reality is built from an
intrinsic brain activity that call on prior knowledge that experience has laid down in our synaptic
connections, it is also tinged by the fictional narratives (Vaihinger, 1911) that take shape through
our affordances and our conceptual inferences.
How do these ideas translate when we focus on a sensory system in particular? Numerous odorous
harmonies occupy the environment, which, when captured by our olfactory system, allow us to
evolve, by conscious or distracted mental projection, between the virtual planes of innumerable
places encoded in our memory (Eichenbaum., 2017). I call these odorous harmonies olfactory
ambiances. Olfactory ambiances affect our olfactory memory, which in turn affects three important
aspects our mental live: spatiotemporal patterns, the emotional valence associated with these
patterns, and our olfactory experience of the world, which I call its “smellscape.”
I propose to present to ASSC-23’s research community, my reflection on the subject and the model
I am currently building to study the influence of smells on human spatiotemporal perception. A
model powered by two field surveys (2011 and 2018) where a commented course method and
cognitive mapping tools where combined to gather data. Having the opportunity to gather comments
on this work would help me to build a stronger thesis.!
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First, a few words on my background because it is important I think to emphasize that,
if I am now attached to the Department of Philosophy and the Institute of Cognitive
Sciences at UQÀM, my first qualifications are in environmental design and fabrication:
I have a background in cabinetmaking, architecture / construction, urban design and
planning. It is therefore much easier for me to make a chair, to renovate a kitchen or to
sketch the plans of a space than to discuss Husserl. But due to the peculiarity of my
research subject, it was only natural to advance the question by making it resonate
between two disciplines which, if they appear very distant from each other for many,
are in my opinion, very important to link, especially for questions about the perception
of the environment.
What I will present here is thus the result of an interdisciplinary path between
environmental design, philosophy and cognitive science.
In 2011, during my master's degree in urban planning, I conducted a field research in
Montreal to become aware of the influence of odors on human spatiotemporal
perception, with the aim of charting ways to make possible integration of the olfactory
dimension into the design project. This study was a first attempt to understand the impact
of olfactory ambiances on human perception as the research on the subject was (are still)
almost non-existent ; unless you look at ways to counter an odor nuisance or to try to
attract a potential consumer in a store…
1/ anatomie du système olfactif : Before describing the methodology I used to carry
out this field study, let’s first have a look at the mechanics of olfaction.
The human olfactory system is a collection of distinct anatomical subsystems that are
unified by their function: detecting chemicals and converting them into neural signals
(Trimmer & Mainland, 2017). Five to ten percent of the air we breathe is directed by the
nasal conchae toward a patch of cells (the olfactory epithelium) on the roof and adjacent
sides of the nasal cavity (Keyhani et al., 1995; Zhao et al., 2004). This area, which
contains more than 100 million receptor cells (Keller & Vosshall, 2016), is where the
stimulus conversion—transduction—kicks off.
An interesting fact: olfactory transduction is much slower than in vision or audition due
to the timing of the sniff cycle. This allows the system to use temporal encoding, in
combination with spatial encoding, to increase the capacity of the system.
1
This
suggests that, not only does each of the odorous complexities recorded in our olfactory
memory embody a world in itself, but that the part of our reality that is shaped by its
dynamics harmonizes itself with a variety of temporal rhythms.
In humans, the olfactory receptor genes are scattered about on the genome, and nearly
every chromosome has at least a few of them. Each receptor gene has a unique structure,
1
Trimmer C., Mainland J.D., 2017. The Olfactory System. In Conn’s Translational Neuroscience, 375.
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allowing the receptor proteins encoded by these genes to bind different odorants.
2
Each
neuron that expresses a particular receptor type, projects to a specific glomerulus within
the main olfactory bulb, establishing an organizational map at the level of the second
order neurons.
Via the olfactory tract, axons enter many regions of the forebrain, including the olfactory
cortex and some of its neighboring structures in the temporal lobes. The neocortex is
reached only by a pathway that synapses in the medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus.
Conscious perception of smell may be mediated by a path from the olfactory
tubercle, to the medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus, and to the orbitofrontal
cortex.
It is important to note that each person has a unique expression of receptor patterns.
Genetic diversity in odor receptors thus suggest variations in perceptual responses
(Keller et al., 2007; Trimmer et al., 2019).
2/ description de la méthodologie de l’étude sur le terrain, et des raisons de l’avoir
réalisée ainsi : To investigate the extent to which smells can shape human perception,
and most particularly human spatiotemporal perception, I associated a method that
allows a real time narrative of a route —the commented course (parcours commenté)—
with a mental mapping tool to study the question in the environment. The objective was
to accompany the individual so that s/he expresses the space as s/he lives it, as s/he
interprets it; to be immersed in her/his references.
In my company, each volunteer carried out, on foot, the same pre-determined walk of a
duration of more or less than 35 minutes. The route allowed participants to meet with a
variety of smells as well as various types of urban spaces. During the walk, the
participant had to verbally express spontaneously what came into their mind when they
were encountering smells or anything that made them think about smells. These
comments were recorded on a voice recording device.
Right at the end of the walk, participants were asked to draw a general impression of
her/his experience of the route on a white sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper. They were given a
pencil, an eraser and three highlighters of different colours, which they were free to use
or not. The colours were assigned a meaning: pink—bad smell; green—good smell;
yellow—neutral smell. By means of these colours, the objective was to give the
researcher more insights into the lived experience of the participant.
The study was carried out with twelve participants in Montréal (QC, Canada).
Here are some of the mental maps [www.natalieb.ca/talks/natalieb_20190628_ASSC23_visuel.pdf]
A diverse range of expressions were harvested, and I staged graphically on the aerial
map of the path the significant quantity of oral data collected. In transcribing each of the
commentaries at the place on the map where it was expressed, it was then possible to
2
Bear M.F., Connors B.W., Paradiso M.A., 2016. Neuroscience. Exploring the Brain, 4th edition, Philadelphia:
Wolters Kluwer, 282.
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confront the reality of the individual with the reality of the space. Like a universe of
narratives, these maps show one side of the intimate relationship that is built between
the individual and the space she/he perceives.
The compilation of all participants’ map revealed different levels of realities
experienced for a same place; and the mental maps, a peculiar collective memory.
3/ observations suite à la première étude : This study allowed me to observe how
much smells that an individual encounter in the environment has a significant impact on
his perception and this, more often than not, unconsciously. This observation was,
however, based on a small sample of participants from different age and culture. So, I
decided to pursue this research within a doctorate in order to study memory systems and
perception in relation to the environment, to develop a solid theoretical structure, as well
as to carry out a second study in the field with this time, anosmic individuals.
4/ l’étude sur le terrain en cours. Impressions préliminaires : The second field study
was conducted in 2018. It included two anosmic participants, a congenital anosmic
participant and individuals with a functional olfactory system, two of whom participated
in the study in 2011. Same methodology (commented course + mental map), same path,
except this time, each participant had to walk the route each season.
Here are some of the mental maps [www.natalieb.ca/talks/natalieb_20190628_ASSC23_visuel.pdf]
The olfactory acuity of participants with a functional olfactory system was also tested
in the laboratory of Johannes Frasnelli, holder of the UQTR Research Chair in
Chemosensory Neuroanatomy. The Sniffin 'Sticks test, developed by Hummel, Sekinger,
Wolf, Pauli & Kobal (1997), is a device with the appearance of a felt pen that allows the
diffusion of the odor it contains when the cap is removed. Three steps were performed
in the laboratory: threshold test (where the subject's task was to detect the stick
containing the odor), differentiation (where the subject's task was to detect the stick
containing the different smell out of two) and identification (where the subject's task
was to select the descriptive word from a list of four words that seemed to be most
closely related to the smell smelt).
After completed the Sniffin’ Sticks test, participants had to fill three questionnaires: le
Odor Awareness Scale (OAS), le Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), et le Beck depression
Inventory (BDI) ; and the Digit Span, part of the Working Memory Index (WMI) of the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) was administered.
Thirteen (out of sixteen) participants completed the study.
The important amount of data is currently being processed and analyzed through an
enactive lense.
5/ développement théorique : According to the enactive approach to the mind,
cognition arises through a dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its
environment (Thompson, 2010 ; Noë, 2004 ; Varela et al., 1991 ; Maturana & Varela,
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1987, 1980). We do not ‘receive’ sensory inputs from our surroundings and translate
them into mental representations, but we enact the world mentally through our
interactions with it. Moreover, according to Andy Clark (2016), our brain does not
suddenly light up in response to events in our surrounding, it is active all the time,
dashing off thousands of predictions of what we might encounter and thus preparing our
body to deal with it. Constantly attempting to predict the sensory inputs and to reduce
the error generated by these predictions, our brain are prediction machines (Clark, 2016;
Hohwy, 2013). As a consequence of this constant storm of predictions, our brain
receives most of the time more inputs from itself than from the outside world
(Feldman Barrett, 2017; Seth, 2015; Hohwy, 2013).
We can surmise at this point that comprehending the world implies a constant
sketching of various scenarios in our mind. These scenarios are multi-level ‘narratives’
(although not necessarily or not fully linguistic) and they may be incoherent, unreal or
true to reality. Our reality lies, ultimately, in a fictional relationship between us and
the environment. It is an intimate reality shaped by our understanding of the tangible
and intangible structures that are within the reach of our senses.
So, not only the structure of our reality is built from an intrinsic brain activity that
calls on prior knowledge that experience has laid down in our synaptic connections
(Friston, 2005, Eichenbaum et al., 2016, 1996), it is also tinged by the fictional
narratives (Vaihinger, 1911) that take shape through our affordances and our
conceptual inferences. What we perceive is between the possible and the real.
APARTÉ — ENGRENAGES MÉMORIELS (MEMORY GEARS)
Human memory system is divided into different dynamic parts that
interact with each other according to the action to be performed.
Information storage is an active process of consolidation. Recall,
recognition and familiarity are different ways to reactivate the information
that is encoded.
The hippocampus, and its connections, which is an influential structure in
regards to episodic memory and schematic representation, is one of two
structures, with the medial prefrontal cortex, the most involved in the
construction of events or scenes that underlies the imagination (Romero,
Barense & Moscovitch, 2019).
To wrap-up this aparté, which reveals the path that I currently explore to
develop further my reflection, I will only add that according to Howard
Eichenbaum (2017:1790), hippocampal neurons are not solely or even
primarily driven by spatial cues, but rather by cognitive states in which
memories are expressed as specific firing sequences in space and time.
6/ conclusion. Un paysage olfactif n’est pas une ambiance olfactive : By following
the logic of dynamic systems and the mechanics of human olfactory anatomy, as well
as relying on my observations and extrapolations resulting from the two field studies I
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conducted, I came to define the concept of smellscape otherwise than theorists from
geography (Gade, 1984 ; Porteous, 1990) and urban planning (Ohno & Kobayashi, 1997
; Henshaw, 2013). Mainly by rooting out chemical inputs (olfactory ambiances) from
the olfactory landscape concept.
And that because the landscape is not the morphology of the environment but a relational
and dynamic entity, where nature and society, gaze and environment, are in constant
interaction (Berque, 1994). The landscape is a space of feeling (Besse, 2000:123)
infused with the perceiver’s subjectivity. If the environment is always there within the
scope of our senses, the landscape appears only under certain conditions, as it comes
from a place of memory.
Being the aesthetical fruit of a purely intellectual recognition (Rogers, 1997), the
landscape stands out from the dynamic fabric of the ambiance as the ambiance is tied to
its physical context. The ambiance lingers when we leave.
Here is a model that represents what I believe to be olfactory perception dynamics
according to an enactive approach.
Olfactory ambiances affect our olfactory memory, which in turn affects three important
aspects of our mental life: spatio-temporal patterns, the emotional valence associated
with these patterns, and our olfactory experience of the world, that is, the smellscape. A
smellscape is therefore a mental allegory composed of multiple mnemic impressions
shaped by smells and tinged by our moods of the moment as well as other sensory
signals. A smellscape testifies to the olfactory harmonies encountered in the
environment: the ones we experience in the moment, the ones that lasted in our mind
from previous experiences, and the ones that arise from expectations.
Since it is essentially a mental expression left by sensory impressions, the smellscape
can still be in the mind of the one who can no longer smell. Though they may be
forgotten at some point, glamorized and/or transformed because linked to new sensory
impressions that arise in another moment, smellscapes remain alive and well in the mind
of those whose sense of smell has disappeared or has become dysfunctional. I would go
even further by claiming that it is possible for someone with congenital anosmia to form
smellscapes. That is to say, someone who is born with an inability to smell has forged a
conception of what a smell can be by gathering what others who can smell have
expressed (Bouchard—ongoing field survey, 2018; forthcoming results: 2020), and also
from what she/he infers from her/his functional sensory modalities. It may sound like a
synesthetic turbulence (when a stimulus is applied to another modality), but it is not,
since the congenital anosmic is unable to process any information about smells. For the
person with congenital anosmia, the ‘olfactory signal,’ if I may refer to it that way,
comes directly from imagination and neurocognitive processing.
Natalie Bouchard
28 juin 2019
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