Exploring the origins of olfactory emotions

27. Bern - SNF As Baudelaire and Proust were well aware, sensory perception and emotions are intimately linked. Odours are indeed powerful stimulants for the human brain. Now, for the first time, researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Affective Sciences have succeeded in demonstrating that the evaluation of olfactory perceptions actually follows a very strict order. Olfactory experiment: while the proband breathes in various scents, electrodes measures his physiological reactions. The result: before classifying a scent as pleasant or unpleasant, the brain checks whether it is familiar or not. New or familiar? Pleasant or unpleasant? When met with an odour, the brain evaluates it within seconds in this order and not the other way around.
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