"A popular theory of the brain holds that its main function is to predict what will happen next, so it reacts mostly to unexpected events.
Most research on this topic, called predictive coding, has only focused on what we see, but no one knows if the different senses, such as smell, work in the same way.
“The main finding is that smelling was much more dependent on
predictions than vision was. This is interesting because many people think that smell is primitive and reactive, when our research shows it is in fact quite sophisticated and proactive,” says Stephen Pierzchajlo.
The researchers also show that when the brain tries to identify odors that it had not expected, both the olfactory and visual brains are activated, despite the absence of visual cues in the task.
“The olfactory brain thus has a completely unique way of processing smells and it is about whether the smells are expected or not. The sense of smell warns us of smells that we had not expected, and engages the visual brain, perhaps to be able to see what it is that smells. It’s a smart function because we humans are so bad at recognizing smells if we don’t get clues,” says Jonas Olofsson.
“The human sense of smell is not a reactive, but a proactive sense. It uses a unique brain strategy to process unexpected smells in order to understand what the smells are,” says Stephen Pierzchajlo." SciTechDaily
“The main finding is that smelling was much more dependent on
The researchers also show that when the brain tries to identify odors that it had not expected, both the olfactory and visual brains are activated, despite the absence of visual cues in the task.
“The olfactory brain thus has a completely unique way of processing smells and it is about whether the smells are expected or not. The sense of smell warns us of smells that we had not expected, and engages the visual brain, perhaps to be able to see what it is that smells. It’s a smart function because we humans are so bad at recognizing smells if we don’t get clues,” says Jonas Olofsson.
“The human sense of smell is not a reactive, but a proactive sense. It uses a unique brain strategy to process unexpected smells in order to understand what the smells are,” says Stephen Pierzchajlo." SciTechDaily