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Understanding the mind's eye...and nose

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 1124–1125 (2003)Cite this article

New findings reveal that people sniff when imagining odors and that sniffing can modify the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the mental image. The work parallels findings in other systems and suggests common neural principles for mental imagery.

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Figure 1: Bensafi et al.3 measured inhalation volumes ('sniffs') and found that people sniffed when asked to imagine the smell of an odor.

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  1. Department of Psychology, 832 William James Hall, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Stephen M Kosslyn

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  1. Stephen M Kosslyn
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Kosslyn, S. Understanding the mind's eye...and nose. Nat Neurosci 6, 1124–1125 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1103-1124

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