Olfaction modulates cortical arousal independent of perceived odor intensity and pleasantness

Throughout history, different odors have been harnessed to invigorate or relax the mind. The mechanisms underlying odors’ diverse arousal effects remain largely unexplored. We conducted five experiments (184 participants) to investigate this issue, using pupillometry, electroencephalography, and the attentional blink paradigm, which exemplifies the limit in attentional capacity. Results demonstrated that exposure to citral, compared to vanillin, enlarged pupil size, reduced resting-state alpha oscillations and alpha network efficiency, augmented beta-gamma oscillations, and enhanced the coordination between parietal alpha and frontal beta-gamma activities. In parallel, it attenuated the attentional blink effect. These effects were observed despite citral and vanillin being comparable in perceived odor intensity, pleasantness, and nasal pungency, and cannot be explained by semantic biases. Our findings reveal that odors differentially orchestrate cortical alpha and beta-gamma oscillations to alter brain state and arousal. Furthermore, they establish arousal as a unique dimension in olfactory space, distinct from intensity and pleasantness.

搜集汇总

背景与挑战

背景概述

该数据集基于一项研究，通过五个实验（184名参与者）探究了气味（如柠檬醛与香草醛）对皮质觉醒的调节作用，独立于感知的气味强度和愉悦度。研究发现柠檬醛能增强瞳孔反应、改变脑电振荡模式（如减少α振荡、增加β-γ振荡），并改善注意力表现，表明嗅觉通过调节皮质振荡来影响大脑状态和觉醒水平。这揭示了觉醒作为嗅觉空间中的一个独特维度，与气味强度和愉悦度无关。