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Combining a Breath-Synchronized Olfactometer with Brain Simulation to Study the Impact of Odors on Corticospinal Excitability and Effective Connectivity

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Olfactory-induced synesthesias: a review and model.

Richard J Stevenson¹, Caroline Tomiczek

¹Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia. rstevens@psy.mq.edu.au

Psychological Bulletin

|March 7, 2007

Summary

Common olfactory-induced experiences, often overlooked, share key traits with rare synesthesias. These universal, unrecognized scent-triggered perceptions may arise from olfaction's unique brain access and memory attribution.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Perception
Cognitive Science

Background:

Synesthesia research often focuses on rare neurodevelopmental cases.
Common olfactory-induced experiences, though widespread, are typically excluded from synesthesia reviews.
These scent-triggered experiences share characteristics with synesthesia, including cross-modal associations.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare common olfactory-induced experiences with neurodevelopmental synesthesias.
To investigate the potential synesthetic nature of universal odor-induced perceptions.
To explore the neuroanatomical and cognitive mechanisms underlying olfactory-induced concurrents.

Main Methods:

Comparative analysis of olfactory-induced experiences and neurodevelopmental synesthesias.
Examination of olfactory neuroanatomy and its dual neocortical access.
Proposal of a dual-process model involving neocortical activation and thalamic attentional processes.

Main Results:

Olfactory-induced experiences are universal, reliable, asymmetric, automatic, and involve learned associations, similar to synesthesia.
Olfaction's unique neuroanatomy may facilitate universal concurrent induction.
A proposed model suggests concurrents arise from direct neocortical memory retrieval and thalamic attribution.

Conclusions:

Olfactory-induced experiences represent a common, unrecognized form of synesthesia.
The unique neurobiology of olfaction likely underlies its ability to universally induce concurrents.
Understanding olfactory synesthesia offers insights into other synesthetic phenomena and sensory processing.