Mechanisms of scent-tracking in humans

Porter, Julia; Craven, Brent A.; Khan, Rehan; Chang, Shao-Ju; Kang, Irene; Judkewitz, Benjamin; Volpe, Jason; Settles, Gary S.; Sobel, Noam

doi:10.1038/nn1819

Cited by 298 publications

(271 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The rats soon learnt to track the odour trail to find the chocolate. All the rats tracked the trail by moving their noses over the trail in a zigzag fashion, similar to the reports for other species 8,[10][11][12] (Fig. 1b, and Supplementary Movie S1).…”

Section: Rats Track Various Odour Trails Accuratelysupporting

confidence: 80%

“…We only placed chocolate pieces on the trail, and the rats quite rapidly discovered that the best strategy was to track the trail to find the chocolate. This basic pattern of movement is seen in moths, dogs and humans tracking unrestrained in the open 8,10,11,26 . Furthermore, we were able to characterize the underlying strategies used by the rats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…First, as shown clearly by moths, insects often combine zigzagging through an odour plume while approaching its source and wide 'casting' movements to search for the trail whenever they lose it 8,9 . The zigzagging approach has been observed in several other animals including bees, cockroaches, dogs and humans 5,[10][11][12] . Second, the use of stereo olfaction in efficiently performing this task has been repeatedly suggested.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, the use of stereo olfaction in efficiently performing this task has been repeatedly suggested. Disrupting bilateral input affects tracking in bees 12 , drosophila larvae 6,13 and humans 11 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Rats track odour trails accurately using a multi-layered strategy with near-optimal sampling

2012

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Tracking odour trails is a crucial behaviour for many animals, often leading to food, mates or away from danger. It is an excellent example of active sampling, where the animal itself controls how to sense the environment. Here we show that rats can track odour trails accurately with near-optimal sampling. We trained rats to follow odour trails drawn on paper spooled through a treadmill. By recording local field potentials (LFPs) from the olfactory bulb, and sniffing rates, we find that sniffing but not LFPs differ between tracking and non-tracking conditions. Rats can track odours within ~1 cm, and this accuracy is degraded when one nostril is closed. moreover, they show path prediction on encountering a fork, wide 'casting' sweeps on encountering a gap and detection of reappearance of the trail in 1-2 sniffs. We suggest that rats use a multi-layered strategy, and achieve efficient sampling and high accuracy in this complex task.

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Section: Rats Track Various Odour Trails Accuratelysupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rats track odour trails accurately using a multi-layered strategy with near-optimal sampling

2012

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“…Porter et al (2007) show that we are in fact able to track odour trails using smell alone (participants were blindfolded, given soundblocking earmuffs etc.). 7 Accuracy dropped significantly when the subjects had one nostril taped up, and when a device was used to combine airflow so both nostrils received the same information.…”

Section: Figure-ground Segregation and The Spatiality Of Olfactionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Smelling objects

Millar

2017

Synthese

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Objects are central to perception and our interactions with the world. We perceive the world as parsed into discrete entities that instantiate particular properties, and these items capture our attention and shape how we interact with the environment. Recently there has been some debate about whether the sense of smell allows us to perceive odours as discrete objects, with some suggesting that olfaction is aspatial and doesn't allow for object-individuation. This paper offers two empirically tractable criteria for assessing whether particular objects are exhibited in perceptual experience-(1) susceptibility to figure-ground segregation and (2) perceptual constancies-and argues that these criteria are fulfilled by olfactory perception, and thus there are olfactory objects. I argue that there are, in fact, two different ways that olfaction allows for figure-ground segregation. First, I look at various Gestalt grouping principles, which are thought to govern when features are perceived as grouped into structured wholes, segregated from everything around them. I argue that these principles apply to olfactory experience, providing evidence of non-spatial figure-ground segregation. Second, I defend the contentious idea that a spatial variety of figureground segregation can also occur in olfaction. To see this, however, we need to look to empirical evidence showing that tactile stimulation and bodily movements play a crucial role in olfactory phenomenology. Finally, I draw on empirical evidence and olfactory phenomenology to argue that there are perceptual constancies in olfactory experience, allowing us to perceive odours as coherent objects that survive shifts in our perspectives on the world.

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Human Olfactory Perception

Gelperin

2010

The Chemistry and Biology of Volatiles

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The scientific study of human olfactory perception, as for any sensory modality, perforce involves the use of rigorous psychophysical and psychometric methods, that is administering tightly controlled physical stimuli to human subjects while obtaining verbal or motor responses that indicate the subject's evaluation of the stimuli. The special challenges inherent in applying controlled and quantitative odorant stimuli often require sophisticated instrumentation for generating known concentrations of selected odorants 1 and collaborations between analytical chemists and psychophysicists to directly measure and control the chemical properties of the stimuli used to elicit subject responses adequate to the task of defining the relevant psychometric functions. 2-6 Assessments of olfactory thresholds require careful attention to methodology and careful comparison of the several different methods currently employed, 7 as do methods for determining odour quality. 8 A central problem in the study of olfactory information processing and the olfactory percepts that result from neural processing of olfactory stimuli is the lack of clear stimulus dimensions in olfaction, analogous to wavelength in vision and frequency in audition. 9 The relationship between molecular properties of an odorant molecule and its sensory properties is not yet understood. 10 To overcome this limitation, a large empirical literature has been developed to relate human olfactory perception to chemical structures grouped into classes of related compounds. 11 Using this prior psychophysical information on responses of human subjects to olfactory stimuli of varied chemical structure, 12 one can begin to make predictions of perceptual responses to new compounds or mixtures of compounds, albeit

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Mechanisms of scent-tracking in humans

Cited by 298 publications

References 14 publications

Rats track odour trails accurately using a multi-layered strategy with near-optimal sampling

Rats track odour trails accurately using a multi-layered strategy with near-optimal sampling

Smelling objects

Human Olfactory Perception

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