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Olfactomotor activity during imagery mimics that during perception

Nature Neuroscience volume 6, pages 1142–1144 (2003)Cite this article

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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Figure 1: Average sniffing at baseline and during imagery.
Figure 2: Normalized inhalation traces for perception and imagination in both olfaction and vision (a).
Figure 3: Effects of sniffing on vividness and pleasantness of imagery.

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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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, 3210 Tolman Hall MC 1650, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Moustafa Bensafi, Jessica Porter, Joel Mainland, Bradley Johnson, Christina Zelano, Elizabeth Bremner, Danny Aframian, Rehan Khan & Noam Sobel

  2. Department of Psychology, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, 3801 University Street, Montreal, Quebec

    Sandra Pouliot

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, 3210 Tolman Hall MC 1650, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Natasha Young & Noam Sobel

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  1. Moustafa Bensafi
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  2. Jessica Porter
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  3. Sandra Pouliot
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  4. Joel Mainland
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  5. Bradley Johnson
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  6. Christina Zelano
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  11. Noam Sobel
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Correspondence to Moustafa Bensafi.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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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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