On the similarity of odor and language perception

The association between olfaction and language is discussed. The effects of odor on human behavior and cognitive processing are reviewed as are electrophysiological studies of odor/language interactions. Also reviewed are specific effects of odor administration on language-dependent tasks. The hypothesis is advanced that odor information processing shares some of the cortical resources used in processing language and that interference between these two types of stimuli occurs when they are simultaneously processed. The reason for this overlap in resources is thought to be due to the similarities in the spatio-temporal patterns produced in the neural coding of odors and language.