Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology

Majid, Asifa

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.11.005

Cited by 68 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 118 publications

(176 reference statements)

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“…Establishing beta rhythms in human piriform cortex may also lay the groundwork for future work on olfactory networks and integration of olfactory information with other cognitive processing streams and behaviors (Kay & Beshel, 2010). For example, integration of olfactory information with language networks (Majid, 2020;Majid & Kruspe, 2018;Olofsson & Gottfried, 2015), memory networks (Arshamian et al, 2018;Arzi et al, 2014;Wilson & Stevenson, 2003;Yeshurun et al, 2009), sleep states (Arzi et al, 2010;Hauner et al, 2013;Perl et al, 2016;Rasch et al, 2007), and other olfactory-guided behaviors (Bhutani et al, 2019;Howard et al, 2020) could potentially involve interactions in beta oscillatory networks. Though our data suggest particular importance for beta and gamma oscillations in odor perception, we also found that the phase of theta oscillations modulated beta and gamma amplitudes during inhalation.…”

Section: Figure 6 Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smell-induced gamma oscillations in human olfactory cortex are required for accurate perception of odor identity

Yang¹,

Zhou²,

Lane³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Neuronal oscillations are fundamental to cognition, facilitating coordination and communication of information within and across brain regions. Studies on the spectral and temporal dynamics of oscillatory rhythms have contributed substantial insight to our understanding of mechanisms of human visual, auditory and somatosensory perception. However, these oscillations have been largely unexplored in the human olfactory system, where we lack basic understanding of fundamental spectrotemporal and functional properties. Determining if and how dynamic signatures of neural activity occur in human olfactory cortex is critical to understanding how we process odors. Here, we establish a characteristic oscillatory response to an odor in the human brain. Using direct electrical recordings from human piriform cortex, we identified three key odor-induced rhythms, in the theta (4-8Hz), beta (13-30Hz) and gamma (30-150Hz) frequency bands, each with distinct functional and temporal properties. While theta emerges and dissipates rapidly at the start of inhalation, beta and gamma emerge later, with beta persisting through exhalation, and gamma peaking around the transition between inhalation and exhalation. Beta and gamma amplitudes strongly predict odor identification ability, whereas theta does not. Theta phase modulates beta and gamma amplitudes during inhalation, only when odor is present. Our findings establish that smells elicit distinct neuronal rhythms in human olfactory cortex, which are dynamically interplayed over the course of a sniff. Our data further suggest a fundamental role for beta and gamma oscillations in human olfactory processing, and that their amplitudes--organized by theta phase--subserve odor identification in humans.

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Section: Figure 6 Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smell-induced gamma oscillations in human olfactory cortex are required for accurate perception of odor identity

Yang¹,

Zhou²,

Lane³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…On the one hand, language depicts only part of the sensory spectrum, differing across different sensory modalities and different languages. It has recently been shown that different languages have different verbal codability for various senses (color, shape, sound, taste, touch, and smell), with colors tending to be most strongly coded and smell to be least, despite humans having rich olfactory perception ( [50], see discussions in [51]), highlighting the differences in information coding in the language-and sensory-derived systems (see also [32], but see [52]). A person or a computer deriving knowledge solely from language may then learn different types of sensory-derived knowledge not equally well.…”

Section: Information Contents Derived From Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Dual coding of knowledge in the human brain

2021

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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How does the human brain code knowledge about the world? While disciplines such as artificial intelligence represent world knowledge based on human language, neurocognitive models of knowledge have been dominated by sensory embodiment, in which knowledge is derived from sensory/motor experience and supported by high-level sensory/motor and association cortices. The neural correlates of an alternative disembodied symbolic system had previously been difficult to establish. A recent line of studies exploring knowledge about visual properties, such as color, in visually deprived individuals converge to provide positive, compelling evidence for non-sensory, language-derived, knowledge representation in dorsal anterior temporal lobe and extended language network, in addition to the sensory-derived representations, leading to a sketch of a dualcoding knowledge neural framework.(A human to an android): There was a thought experiment they gave us. It's called 'Mary in a Black and White room.' Mary is a scientist, and her special subject is color. She knows everything there is to know about it […] But she lives in a black and white room. She was born there, raised there […] One day… Mary walks out and she sees a blue sky. And at that moment she learns something that all her studies couldn't tell her. She learns what it feels to see color. The thought experiment was to show the students the difference between a computer and a human mind. The computer is Mary in the black and white room. The human is when she walks out. -Ex Machina (a Movie, 2014), citing [1]. Knowledge representation: sensorial versus symbolic notions granted by different disciplinesWhat does it mean, to know? Is knowing supported by symbolic relations versus knowing through sensory experience (see Glossary) the difference between (current) machines and humans, as suggested in the earlier movie dialogue?The human brain stores vast amounts of knowledge about the world, such as the color of roses, the shape of the earth, the mechanisms of evolution, and the functions of a jury. Various sorts of knowledge guide a broad range of behaviors, from recognizing objects to understanding words, reasoning, and decision making. Understanding how world knowledge is represented is one of the oldest and most-debated questions in any discipline interested in the mind and brain. The discussions in every field, including philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science, center on two broad notions of representing knowledge: symbolic versus embodied (sensory/ motor-experience-derived). The symbolic representation, granted by Mary in the black and white room in the thought experiment earlier [1], is the prevalent way to represent knowledge in artificial intelligence. Beyond computers, similar notions have also been assumed in various cognitive (e.g., dual coding by both verbal and nonverbal [2,3]) and philosophical theories (e.g., dualism [4]). Despite this popularity in some areas, neurocognitive (biological) models of knowledge implementation are more strongly influenced by the ...

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“…Although we have no a priori reason to expect different results, we do know that odor perception is easily influenced by language (Herz, 2000), which could mean the odors would be processed differently if participants heard pseudowords first. Future studies could examine whether these effects work symmetrically or asymmetrically (Majid, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, although odor has traditionally been neglected, viewed as a lower, ineffable sense, there is growing evidence that odor can be encoded in language (Majid, 2021). In line with this, we provide the first experimental evidence that people are sensitive to odor valence communicated via the sound of a word.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Sound of Smell: Associating Odor Valence With Disgust Sounds

Speed¹,

Atkinson²,

Wnuk

et al. 2021

Cognitive Science

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Olfaction has recently been highlighted as a sense poorly connected with language. Odor is difficult to verbalize, and it has few qualities that afford mimicry by vision or sound. At the same time, emotion is thought to be the most salient dimension of an odor, and it could therefore be an olfactory dimension more easily communicated. We investigated whether sounds imitative of an innate disgust response can be associated with unpleasant odors. In two experiments, participants were asked to make a forced choice between a pseudoword including a disgust sound and a neutral pseudoword, for pleasant and unpleasant odors. Overall, participants chose more disgust pseudowords than neutral pseudowords for unpleasant odors, but this was not the case for pleasant odors. This effect was not driven by a general association between unpleasant sounds and unpleasant odors, but specifically the sounds [x/χ ] and [f], thought to reflect physical responses to disgusting odors, as seen in the Polish fu! or the English ugh!. In line with growing evidence that language can encode odor, we provide the first experimental evidence for an association between the sound of a word and odor valence.

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Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology

Cited by 68 publications

References 118 publications

Smell-induced gamma oscillations in human olfactory cortex are required for accurate perception of odor identity

Smell-induced gamma oscillations in human olfactory cortex are required for accurate perception of odor identity

Dual coding of knowledge in the human brain

The Sound of Smell: Associating Odor Valence With Disgust Sounds

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