Hemispheric lateralization in the processing of odor pleasantness versus odor names

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.