Friday Lunch Seminar (English)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 22, 2021
12:15\u00a0\u301c\u00a013:00
(On-line)
Apply for participation from\u00a0here\u00a0by noon, October 21.
You will be notified of participation details by e-mail on October 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk Title: Olfactory stimulation modulates visual perception without training<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoshiaki Tsushima
Senior Researcher
Brain Function Analysis and Imaging Laboratory
Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet)
National Institutes of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Host:\u00a0N. Eiji Nawa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract:
Considerable research shows that olfactory stimulation can affect emotions and other high-level cognitive functions. However, a little-known fact is that olfaction can modulate the low-level perception of other sensory modalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test the possibility that olfaction modulates low-level perception even without training, we conducted a series of psychophysical and neuroimaging experiments. Behavioral results revealed that participants reported the speed of moving dots to be slower when they were paired with a lemon smell but faster when a vanilla smell was presented instead. Moreover, fMRI results showed that areas in the visual cortex [V1 and human middle temporal area (hMT)] displayed distinct activity depending on the type of olfactory stimulation that was presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings provide the first direct evidence that olfaction can modulate low-level visual perception without training, indicating that this olfactory-visual effect is not an acquired behavior but rather an innate one. This newly discovered crossmodal effect between olfaction and vision opens a unique opportunity to reconsider some fundamental roles of olfactory function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1511"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514,"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1511\/revisions\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cinetjp-static3.nict.go.jp\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}