HUMAN PROCESSING OF OLFACTORY INFORMATION

The present paper aims to review experiments related to the processing of olfactory information. The following topics are investigated: the simple detection of an odor presence; the recognition of odors previously smelled; the identification of odours and their naming; finally, the influence of odors in the retrieval of autobiographical memories. It has been observed that humans have a keen sense of smell, able to detect very diluted odours. If we compare with the processing of visual information, olfactory information seems more difficult to process; difficulties arise when encoding as well as when labelling. On the other hand, episodic memories strongly resist interference and last a long time. The use of odors as cues to complex memories is questioned Possible reasons for those observations are discussed The difference in brain architecture, quite specific for olfaction, is suggested, but a functional explanation cannot be discarded Indeed. the weak and rare interest given to olfactory information might thwart the building of a conceptual grid in this field, leading to negative effects on perceptual strategies and on the development of a stable lexicon.