A Holley’s research while affiliated with French National Centre for Scientific Research and other places
What is this page?
This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.
Le systeme olfactif se distingue des autres systemes sensoriels par de nombreux aspects, et avant tout par l'existence d'un tres grand nombre de genes codant pour des recepteurs olfactifs aux proprietes distinctes. En depit de cette multiplicite des recepteurs, et quoique certaines anosmies (c'est-a-dire pertes de l'odorat) soient selectives, il est hautement probable qu'il n'existe pas un recepteur particulier par odeur. En fait, les cellules receptrices sont, individuellement, sensibles a des molecules de structure chimique et d'odeur tres differentes et, dans les bulbes olfactifs, plusieurs centaines d'entre elles convergent sur les cellules mitrales. La specificite de la reconnaissance des odeurs semble mettre en jeu plusieurs types de mecanismes
Mammalian females have long been known to release olfactory attraction in their offspring. Mammary odor cues control infant state, attention and directional responses, delay distress responses, stimulate breathing and positive oral actions, and finally can boost learning. Here, we survey female-offspring odor communication in two mammalian species - European rabbits and humans - taken as representatives of evolutionary extremes in terms of structure and dynamics of mother-infant relations, and level of neonatal autonomy. Despite these early psychobiological differences, females in both species have evolved mammary structures combining multiple sources of endogenous and exogenous odorants, and of greasy fixatives, conferring on them a chemocommunicative function. To process these mammary chemosignals, neonates have co-evolved multiple perceptual mechanisms. Their behaviour appears to be driven by plastic mechanism(s) calibrated by circumstantial odor experience in preceding and current environments (fetal and postnatal induction of sensory processes and learning), and by predisposed mechanisms supported by pathways that may be hard-wired to detect species-specific signals. In rabbit neonates, predisposed and plastic mechanisms are working inclusively. In human neonates, only plastic mechanisms could be demonstrated so far. These mammary signals and cues confer success in offspring's approach and exploration of maternal body surface, and ensuing effective initial feeds and rapid learning of maternal identity. Although the duration of the impact of these mammary signals is variable in newborns of species exposed to contrasting life-history patterns, their functional role in setting on infant-mother interaction in the context of milk transfer can be crucial.
The olfactory system and neurobiologyNeurobiological knowledge about the sense of smell has made rapid advances since the discovery of the olfactory receptors (of a remarkably large number and diversity). Answers are now being made to questions about the original properties of olfactory perception, many of which are determined at the level of the olfactory organ and strongly determined by genes. Knowledge about the genetics of these receptors shows that the number of functional olfactory genes has decreased over time in the human species; this raises questions about the evolution of the sense of smell. Another finding full of promise: applying the methods of functional cerebral imagery to olfaction is starting to provide us with detailed maps of the zones of the human brain activated during olfaction. Among the attributes of odors, the “affective valence” is the most sensitive to the effects of sensory experiences, the environment and, therefore, culture.
The present study sought to examine the differential processing of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odors. The effects of the nostril stimulated (left or right) and the type of judgment (perceptual, affective, or cognitive) performed on the olfactory stimuli were also studied. To this end, 64 subjects were asked to smell pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant odors under four conditions (detection, intensity, pleasantness, and familiarity tasks). The participants were to perform these tasks as quickly as possible, while response times were recorded. The results showed that (i) unpleasant odors were assessed more rapidly than neutral or pleasant odors, and that this was specifically true (ii) during right nostril stimulation, and (iii) during pleasantness assessment, suggesting possible differential cerebral hemisphere involvement, with a right-side advantage for processing of unpleasant affect in olfaction. A handedness effect on familiarity judgment is also discussed.
The objective of the present study was to determine whether an olfactory prime could modulate behavior and visual event-related potentials (ERPs) obtained in response to a visual stimulation representing female faces. More specifically, we tested the hypothesis that a pleasant odor could have effects on face perception: behavioral effects on subjective emotional estimation of faces, and on associated response times, and electrophysiological effects on the N400 and late positive complex or LPC. Experiments were performed in which subjects had to decide whether the presented face was pleasant or not, while visual ERPs were recorded. Faces were always primed with either a pleasant odor or a neutral olfactory stimulus (pure air). In order to test the effect of subject's awareness, participants were not informed that an odor would be presented in the experimental sessions. Responses were significantly shorter for unpleasant faces. However, no behavioral effects of the pleasant odor on response time or on evaluation of face pleasantness were observed. Late ERPs evoked by faces were modulated by the presence of a pleasant odor, even when subjects were neither warned nor aware of the presence of the odor: in a frontal site and after the diffusion of the odor, the LPC (appearing 550 ms after the presentation of the visual stimulus) evoked by unpleasant faces was significantly more positive than the LPC evoked by pleasant faces. This effect could reflect an enhanced alert reaction to unpleasant faces are preceded by an (incongrous) pleasant odor.
Pleasantness and arousal have been identified as the main dimensions of affective responses to environment. Pleasantness is defined as the degree of favorable feelings a subject can experience under given circumstances. Arousal is defined as the degree of excitement (general activation) the subject feels under these circumstances. In visual and auditory modalities, many studies using measures such as facial electromyographic (EMG) activity and skin conductance (SC) have found those parameters to vary as a function of either pleasantness or arousal: for example, facial corrugator EMG activity covaries with the pleasantness dimension, while SC increases together with arousal. The first objective of this research is to study the possible covariation between peripheral measures and pleasantness/arousal in olfaction. We also examined the effect of odor intensity on facial and autonomic variations. The second objective was to investigate whether odors could evoke verbally specific emotions (e.g. joy, anger, fear, surprise, disgust or sadness) and also induce specific patterns of peripheral responses. Participants were exposed to 12 different odors while their facial and autonomic parameters were recorded, and estimated their intensity, pleasantness, and arousal capacity. Then, they chose between seven words for emotions (fear, anger, sadness, surprise, neutral, joy or disgust) to describe their reaction to the odor. As in vision, olfactory pleasantness covaries (negatively) with facial activity of the corrugator muscle, and arousal (positively) with skin conductance. No relationships were observed between physiological changes and variations in perceived intensity. Results also showed that emotions of "disgust" and "joy" were more frequently evoked verbally than any other emotions, and that only facial EMG activity distinguishes them (e.g. "disgust" vs. "joy" and "neutral state"). The results are discussed in terms of possible existence of two brain systems (defensive and appetitive), each of them being able to vary in metabolic arousal.
Perception of odours can provoke explicit reactions such as judgements of intensity or pleasantness, and implicit output such as skin conductance or heart rate variations. The main purpose of the present experiment was to ascertain: (i) the correlation between odour ratings (intensity, arousal, pleasantness and familiarity) and activation of the autonomic nervous system, and (ii) the inter-correlation between self-report ratings on intensity, arousal, pleasantness and familiarity dimensions in odour perception. Twelve healthy volunteers were tested in two separate sessions. Firstly, subjects were instructed to smell six odorants (isovaleric acid, thiophenol, pyridine, L-menthol, isoamyl acetate, and 1-8 cineole), while skin conductance and heart rate variations were being measured. During this phase, participants were not asked to give any judgement about the odorants. Secondly, subjects were instructed to rate the odorants on dimensions of intensity, pleasantness, arousal and familiarity (self-report ratings), by giving a mark between 1 (not at all intense, arousing, pleasant or familiar) and 9 (extremely intense, arousing, pleasant or familiar). Results indicated: (i) a pleasantness factor correlated with heart rate variations, (ii) an arousal factor correlated with skin conductance variations, and (iii) a strong correlation between the arousal and intensity dimensions. In conclusion, given that these correlations are also found in other studies using visual and auditory stimuli, these findings provide preliminary information suggesting that autonomic variations in response to olfactory stimuli are probably not modality specific, and may be organized along two main dimensions of pleasantness and arousal, at least for the parameters considered (i.e. heart rate and skin conductance).
The human organs of perception are constantly bombarded with chemicals from the environment. Our bodies have in turn developed complex processing systems, which manifest themselves in our emotions, memory, and language. Yet the available data on the high order cognitive implications of taste and smell are scattered among journals in many fields, with no single source synthesizing the large body of knowledge, much of which has appeared in the last decade. This book presents the first multidisciplinary synthesis of the literature in olfactory and gustatory cognition. Leading experts have written chapters on many facets of taste and smell, including odor memory, cortical representations, psychophysics and functional imaging studies, genetic variation in taste, and the hedonistic dimensions of odors. The approach is integrative, combining perspectives from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics, and is appropriate for students and researchers in all of these areas who seek an authoritative reference on olfaction, taste, and cognition.
Citations (49)
... At the same time, some scents were comparable enough for participants to recognise strong similarities. The scents covered a number of potentially key dimensions discussed in prior research (see Agapakis & Tolaas, 2012;Crisinel & Spence, 2012;Dubois & Rouby, 2002;Holley, 2002;Zarzo, 2008Zarzo, , 2012Zarzo & Stanton, 2009, as examples). For example, some scents were selected for being particularly pleasant or unpleasant. ...
... First, a number of a priori criteria including molecular shape, chemical structure, and range of vapor pressures were considered to be determinants of response. Second, results from previous electrophysiological and psychophysical experiments (e.g., Stuiver, 1958; Daval et al., 1972; Holley et al., 1974;) were used as a guide in the selection process. ...
... The human sense of smell is susceptible to detecting and discriminating gases or odors at low concentrations [1]. Most poisonous gases or harmful vapors are only detectable at high concentrations [2]. High-performance gas chromatography [3] and ionchromatography [4] own higher responses for lower gas and vapor concentrations. ...
... L'ensemble des filia représente les deux nerfs olfactifs (I er nerf crânien). Les (16,17). La carte spatiotemporelle d'activation des glomérules depuis les récepteurs olfactifs, ou code combinatoire, se réfère à une odeur particulière (7). ...
... Thus, dopamine may be released as part of a feedback loop to protect olfactory receptor neurons from the potentially damaging effects of noxious chemicals that stimulate trigeminal fibers (Hegg and Lucero, 2004 ). The modulation of olfactory receptor cell activity caused by release of substance P and acetylcholine from trigeminal fibers (Bouvet et al., 1987a; Bouvet et al., 1987b Bouvet et al., , 1988) may serve a similar function. Damaged olfactory receptor neurons release ATP, which reduces odorant sensitivity in adjacent cells, again serving a neuroprotective function (Hegg et al., 2003). ...
... Inhibitory responses of vertebrate OSNs such as those shown in Fig. 1A are not new findings as one might assume from statements in some recent publications. Rather, such inhibitory responses of OSNs were known for over 50 years (Gesteland et al. 1965;Duchamp et al. 1974;Revial et al. 1978) and were further confirmed in later years (Morales et al. 1994;Kang and Caprio 1997;Yamada and Nakatani 2001). Researchers have speculated about the function of inhibitory responses in OSNs. ...
... Olfactory neural processing is closely linked to the animal's nutritional status. The olfactory system is more active (Chaput & Holley, 1976;Pager, Giachetti, Holley, & Le Magnen, 1972; in starving animals, whereas satiety reduces both olfactory activity and acuity Chaput & Holley, 1976;Pager et al., 1972; ...
... For example, Savic and Berglund (2000) found better performance on a same-different odor discrimination task for odors that were previously rated to be more familiar. Jehl et al. (1995) found that exposure to unfamiliar odors increased their familiarity and this resulted in an increase in odor discrimination ability. On the other hand, Cormiea and Fischer (2023) found that familiarity did not impact odor discrimination performance and Zhang et al. (2017) found that familiarity could not account for the developmental patterns of odor discrimination that they observed in their data. ...
... The participants answered faster during accurate recognition of odours than when they failed at recognising or rejecting the odour cues. This is consistent with previous reports where Hits were always the fastest response (Jehl et al., 1997;Olsson & Cain, 2003;Royet et al., 2011;Saive, Royet, Ravel, et al., 2014). The lower recognition score for odour cues than for other sensory cues confirmed our hypothesis. ...
... Mechanical stress on gut and bladder epithelia also modulates sensory efferent nerve activity (Najjar et al., 2020), and chemosensory neuron activity in C. elegans (Caprini et al., 2021), although glial coupling is not yet explored for either setting. Mechanical stress also drives sensory epithelium neurogenesis and placode development (Levy Nogueira et al., 2015;Phuong Le et al., 2022;Sicard et al., 1998). In the CNS, blood-flow mechanical shear impacts the blood-brain barrier, which is maintained by endothelia-glia interactions (Bauer et al., 2014;Bundgaard and Abbott, 2008;Segarra et al., 2018). ...
