Human olfaction: A view from the top

Abstract

Abstract Although our understanding of human olfactory perception has increased dramatically, it remains less well understood how olfaction interacts with cognitive processes. This chapter reviews the claim that olfaction predominantly supports ‘novelty detection’, a framework that leaves little room for cognitive representations and processes. It is argued that this framework has several possible limitations. Instead, it is proposed that human olfaction is best understood in terms of its significant reliance on top-down processes; a fundamental role of olfaction is to evaluate predictions that are constructed based on the context, and these predictions may be explicit and cognitive in nature. Olfaction is, according to this view, not limited to passively responding to environmental changes, but actively interacts with cognitive systems to shape goal-directed behaviours. It is proposed that cue-target matching tasks provide useful and flexible experimental designs to study these effects.