Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:40:31.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conscious olfaction: Content, function, and localization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

Bjorn Merker
Bjorn Merker*
Affiliation:
Fjälkestadsv, 410-82, SE-29194, Kristianstad, Sweden. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The target article's emphasis on olfaction is a welcome reminder of the multimodal nature of conscious experience. Here, I explore the distinctive and even unique attributes of our sense of smell from the point of view of their bearing on and fit with a subcortical locus of sensory experience.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e188
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrecht, J., Demmel, M., Schöpf, V., Kleemann, A. M., Kopietz, R., May, J., Schreder, T., Zernecke, R., Brückmann, H. & Wiesmann, M. (2011) Smelling chemosensory signals of males in anxious versus nonanxious condition increases state anxiety of female subjects. Chemical Senses 36:19–27. doi:10.1093/chemse/bjq087.Google Scholar
Baars, B. J. (1997a) Contrastive phenomenology: A thoroughly empirical approach to consciousness. In: The nature of consciousness: Phiolosophical controversies, ed. Flanagan, O. J., Block, N. & Guzeldere, G., pp. 187–202. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Boireau, N., Pinault, G., Kirsche, L. & MacLeod, P. (2000) Lateralization of vanillin odor perception by birhinal stimulation: Differential olfactometer method. In: Abstracts, ISOT/ECRO 2000 Congress: Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste (ISOT), July 20–24, 2000, Brighton, U.K. European Chemoreception Research Organisation (ECRO).Google Scholar
Carmichael, S. T., Clugnet, M.-C. & Price, J. L. (1994) Central olfactory connections in the macaque monkey. Journal of Comparative Neurology 346:403–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frasnelli, J., Charbonneau, G., Collignon, O. & Lepore, F. (2009) Odor localization and sniffing. Chemichal Senses 34:139–44.Google Scholar
Friedrich, R. W. (2011) Olfactory neuroscience: Beyond the bulb. Current Biology 21:R438–40. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.04.036.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hummer, T. A. & McClintock, M. K. (2009) Putative human pheromone androstadienone attunes the mind specifically to emotional information. Hormones and Behavior 55:548–59. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.01.002.Google Scholar
Insausti, R., Amaral, D. G. & Cowan, W. M. (1987) The entorhinal cortex of the monkey: Subcortical afferents. Journal of Comparative Neurology 264:396–408.Google Scholar
Khan, R. M., Luk, C.-H., Flinker, A., Aggarwal, A., Lapid, H., Haddad, R. & Sobel, N. (2007) Predicting odor pleasantness from odorant structure: Pleasantness as a reflection of the physical world. Journal of Neuroscience 27:10015–23. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1158-07.2007.Google Scholar
Kobal, G., Van Toller, S. & Hummel, T. (1989) Is there directional smelling? Experientia 45:130–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kobayakawa, K., Kobayakawa, R., Matsumoto, H., Oka, Y., Imai, T., Ikawa, M., Okabe, M., Ikeda, T., Itohara, S., Kikusui, T., Mori, K. & Sakano, H. (2007) Innate versus learned odour processing in the mouse olfactory bulb. Nature 450:503–508. doi:10.1038/nature06281.Google Scholar
Köster, E. P. (1971) Adaptation and cross-adaptation in olfaction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Utrecht.Google Scholar
Köster, E. P. (2002) The specific characteristics of the sense of smell. In: Olfaction, taste and cognition, ed. Rouby, C., Schaal, B., Dubois, D., Gervais, R. & Holley, A., pp. 27–43. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lundström, J. N., Boyle, J. A., Zatorre, J. C. & Jones-Gotman, M. (2008) Functional neuronal processing of body odors differs from that of similar common odors. Cerebral Cortex 18:1466–74. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundström, J. N. & Olsson, M. J. (2005) Subthreshold amounts of social odorant affect mood, but not behavior, in heterosexual women when tested by a male, but not a female, experimenter. Biological Psychology 70:197–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandairon, N., Poncelet, J., Bensafi, M. & Didier A. (2009) Humans and mice express similar olfactory preferences. PLoS ONE 4(1):e4209. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004209.Google Scholar
Mast, T. G. & Samuelsen, C. L. (2009) Human pheromone detection by the vomeronasal organ: Unnecessary for mate selection? Chemical Senses 34:529–31. doi:10.1093/chemse/bjp030.Google Scholar
McClintock, M. K. (2000) Human pheromones: Primers, releasers, signalers, or modulators? In: Reproduction in context, ed. Wallen, K. & Schneider, J. E., pp. 355–420. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Merker, B. (2007) Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: A challenge for neuroscience and medicine. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30(1):63–81; discussion 81–134.Google Scholar
Merker, B. (2012) From probabilities to percepts: A subcortical “global best estimate buffer” as locus of phenomenal experience. In: Being in time: Dynamical models of phenomenal experience, ed. Shimon, E., Tomer, F. & Zach, N., pp. 37–80. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Merker, B. (2013a) Body and world as phenomenal contents of the brain's reality model. In: The unity of mind, brain and world: Current perspectives on a science of consciousness, ed. Pereira, A. Jr. & Lehmann, D., pp. 7–42. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mori, K. & Sakano, H. (2011) How is the olfactory map formed and interpreted in the mammalian brain? Annual Review of Neuroscience 34:467–99. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-112210-112917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morsella, E. (2005) The function of phenomenal states: Supramodular interaction theory. Psychological Review 112:1000–21.Google Scholar
Mujica-Parodi, L. R., Strey, H. H., Frederick, B., Savoy, R., Cox, D., Botanov, Y., Tolkunov, D., Rubin, D. & Weber, J. (2009) Chemosensory cues to conspecific emotional stress activate amygdala in humans. PLoS ONE 4(7):e6415. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006415.Google Scholar
Nishizumi, H. & Sakano, H. (2015) Decoding and deorphanizing an olfactory map. Nature Neuroscience 18:1432–33.Google Scholar
Plailly, J., Howard, J. D., Gitelman, D. R. & Gottfried, J. A. (2008) Attention to odor modulates thalamocortical connectivity in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience 28:5257–67. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5607-07.2008.Google Scholar
Porter, J., Anand, T., Johnson, B., Khan, R. M. & Sobel, N. (2005) Brain mechanisms for extracting spatial information from smell. Neuron 47:581–92.Google Scholar
Saunders, R. C., Mishkin, M. & Aggleton, J. P. (2005) Projections from the entorhinal cortex, perirhinal cortex, presubiculum, and parasubiculum to the medial thalamus in macaque monkeys: Identifying different pathways using disconnection techniques. Experimental Brain Research 167:1–16. doi: 10.1007/s00221-005-2361-3.Google Scholar
Savic, I., Hedén-Blomqvist, E. & Berglund, H. (2009) Pheromone signal transduction in humans: What can be learned from olfactory loss. Human Brain Mapping 30:3057–65. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20727.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saxton, T. K., Lyndon, A., Little, A. C & Roberts, S. C. (2008) Evidence that androstadienone, a putative human chemosignal, modulates women's attributions of men's attractiveness. Hormones and Behavior 54:597–601.Google Scholar
Sela, L. & Sobel, N. (2010) Human olfaction: A constant state of change-blindness. Experimental Brain Research 205:13–29. doi: 10.1007/s00221-010-2348-6.Google Scholar
Sokolov, E. N. (1963) Higher nervous functions: The orienting reflex. Annual Review of Physiology 25:545–80. doi:10.1146/annurev.ph.25.030163.002553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevenson, R. J. (2009) Phenomenal and access consciousness in olfaction. Consciousness and Cognition 18:1004–17. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2009.09.005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilke, M., Mueller, K.-M. & Leopold, D. A. (2009) Neural activity in the visual thalamus reflects perceptual suppression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106:9465–70. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900714106.Google Scholar
Wyart, C., Webster, W. W., Chen, J. H., Wilson, S. R., McClary, A., Khan, R. M. & Sobel, N. (2007) Smelling a single component of male sweat alters levels of cortisol in women. Journal of Neuroscience 27:1261–65. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4430-06.2007.Google Scholar
Wysocki, C. J. & Preti, G. (2004) Facts, fallacies, fears, and frustrations with human pheromones. Anatomical Record (Part A) 281A:1201–11.Google Scholar
Yeshurun, Y. & Sobel, N. (2010) An odor is not worth a thousand words: From multidimensional odors to unidimensional odor objects. Annual Review of Psychology 61:219–41. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhou, W. & Chen, D. (2009) Fear-related chemosignals modulate recognition of fear in ambiguous facial expressions. Psychological Science 20:177–83. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02263.x.Google Scholar