Abstract
Neural representations created in the absence of external sensory stimuli are referred to as imagery1, and such representations may be augmented by reenactment of sensorimotor processes2. We measured nasal airflow in human subjects while they imagined sights, sounds and smells, and only during olfactory imagery did subjects spontaneously enact the motor component of olfaction—that is, they sniffed. Moreover, as in perception3,4, imagery of pleasant odors involved larger sniffs than imagery of unpleasant odors, suggesting that the act of sniffing has a functional role in creating of olfactory percepts.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Searle Foundation, the Fondation Fyssen, and an R03 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH-NIDCD). We thank Arak Elite.
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Bensafi, M., Porter, J., Pouliot, S. et al. Olfactomotor activity during imagery mimics that during perception. Nat Neurosci 6, 1142–1144 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1145
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1145
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