N. Eiji Nawa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAbstract:
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"}],"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}]}}