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When you travel, the well-being of your skin is a priority. Don't leave your favourite ritual behind. The "TRAVEL RITUAL" mesh pouch sails through security checks in style. Its mesh material stands up to all travel conditions.
The LE LIFT travel ritual meets the needs of skin confronted with fatigue and stress, the pollution of airports and cities, and jet lag. The LE LIFT travel pouch contains a 30 ml bottle of DÉMAQUILLANT YEUX INTENSE, a 30 ml tube of LAIT DOUCEUR D'HUILE, a 15 ml bottle of LE LIFT SÉRUM and a 20 ml travel jar of CRÈME.
Refer to the product pages: DÉMAQUILLANT YEUX INTENSE, LE LAIT DOUCEUR D'HUILE, LE LIFT SÉRUM, LE LIFT CRÈME.
Traces of makeup under your eyes make you look even more tired. So, when you travel, perfect makeup removal is essential. The bi-phase formula of DÉMAQUILLANT YEUX INTENSE sweeps away even waterproof mascara, yet is gentle enough for the most sensitive eyes.
When you travel, your skin accumulates impurities and pollution particles. LE LAIT DOUCEUR D'HUILE removes makeup and deeply cleanses, while maintaining the skin's balance. Clean and clear, your skin glows with well-being.
At the heart of this lifting and firming serum lies a smart active ingredient that truly understands your skin. Lines are smoothed and signs of fatigue seem to disappear - even after a long journey.
Smart move: take a cream that combines natural ingredients with visible results. The extra-gentle formula of this cream is an antidote to the intense pace of traveling, which deepens wrinkles and accentuates signs of fatigue.
The TRAVEL RITUAL pouch is designed to sail through security checks in airports and withstand the most extreme travel conditions. Take it with you and keep it close by. Indulge in beauty touch-ups anywhere, anytime.
1 pce
The list of ingredients is included on all of our product packaging. In case of an allergy, always check the list of ingredients before you use the product.
CHANEL 92 200 Neuilly-sur-Seine
The signature box
Exclusively prepared with care and attention the CHANEL signature
gift box is a gift within itself.
A personalised gift note completes your gift.
The samples
CHANEL is delighted to offer you the selection of up to two samples with each order.
What are my delivery options ?
All orders placed on the Official Online Boutique are uniquely packaged by CHANEL and delivered in the United Kingdom (exclusions apply). CHANEL is pleased to offer complimentary standard delivery for all orders over £50.
CHANEL offers the following delivery options; Standard Delivery, Next Day Delivery & Nominated Day Delivery
All above methods are guaranteed within a 1 hour delivery slot (excluding Sundays and holidays) by our transporter.
And in London: Same Day & complimentary Next Day Click & Collect, available from all CHANEL stand-alone Boutiques.
What are your return / exchange policies ?
We hope that you will be delighted with your order. However, if you
wish to return the Product(s), you have the right to return your order
within 28 days from the date your product is delivered.In order to
receive a full refund, simply complete the return form and attach the
prepaid return label to the outside of your package and then follow
one of the options detailed below.
Via post: complete the return form, provided in the delivery package and then attach the prepaid return label to the outside of your package and drop the items at a DPD location as listed on DPD.
In store at one of the following CHANEL Boutiques:
- CHANEL Fragrance & Beauty Boutique at Covent Garden
- CHANEL Fragrance & Beauty Boutique at Spitalfields
- CHANEL Fragrance & Beauty Boutique at St Pancras International Station.
Please note that returns will not be accepted at any other retail
outlet that sells CHANEL products.
All refunds will be credited to the original card/method that was used for payment, and refund processing time may vary depending on your bank. Please note, chanel.com orders cannot be exchanged, but you may return an order to receive a refund. Please call 0800 028 5005 for more information.


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Are you constantly being hard on yourself? Saying things to yourself like… "you can't do that!", "you keep making the wrong decisions over and over again", "everyone else knows what they're doing, why don't you know?". Are these the words in your head when you are hard on yourself?
Does this voice sound familiar? Self-criticism can often be healthy, as it is a sign of self-awareness. It can help you find ways to improve, build stronger relationships and grow.
First of all, when your own self-criticism gets too harsh, it can be just the opposite! Too much self-criticism does not lead to self-improvement. Instead it wears down your confidence and your peace of mind down. This makes it much harder for you to achieve your goals.
Therefore it's time for you to stop being hard on yourself, and take a stand for being kinder to yourself. You will find you will be kinder to others and others will in turn be kinder to you.
Why are you being hard on yourself?
It is natural to experience doubt and strive to improve. When you are constantly thinking badly of yourself, being hard on yourself all the time, this can negatively impact your well-being.
Consequently, you don't appreciate judgement and criticism from someone who is bullying or harassing a friend. So it's obvious why self-criticism can be just as harmful, when you are constantly being hard on yourself.
What's worse is we are often our own worst critic. No one knows you better than yourself. So what causes us to be so hard on ourselves?
Consider the negative voice in your head and the things you say to you. Where does this voice come from? Is it actually yours? Or perhaps it is the voice of your Parents? Your Partner? Your best Friend? Or your Peers?
It is time to learning from the past. This lack of kindness for yourself may be related to past emotional experiences. Children especially are more prone to holding onto our criticism. They are more likely to feel insecure and losing confidence in themselves.
We set high standards for ourselves and others. If these standards are not met, we beat ourselves up. This leads to perfectionism.
How to Stop being hard on yourself
So what steps can you take towards embracing a more positive mindset? Here are a few tips to get you thinking:
- Self-Awareness and Self-Kindness
Self-awareness is at the root of all self-criticism, so you must also be aware of when you are being unkind to yourself.
Compliment yourself when you do something well. Acknowledge when you achieve a goal, even a small one.
Do an Appreciation Journal and Acknowledge the good things in your life. When you do this at the end of the day, it is a great way of winding down.
- Don't Compare Yourself to Other People
In times where you are down, you look around at other people who are doing well and compare yourself to them.
Other person you see may be excelling in one area — but like you, they deal with a myriad of thoughts, feelings and problems you don't know about.
When you are more aware, you tend to compare yourself to others. Begin to remind yourself that you are your own person with your own path to success.
- Recognize Your Failures as Learning Opportunities
A mistake is an experience you can learn from, and the knowledge you gain will help you down the road.
You can't change that mistake. But you can do your best, and learn from it and move on. Next time you see them you can make up for it.
Whatever the situation is, you will always be learning — which means you will always be improving.
- Be Patient With Yourself
Old habits die hard, and learning to think positively takes time and practice. Replace your negative thoughts with kind words such as "Love and Appreciation" or "Love and Gratitude".
As a result, over time you will notice improvements in your mindset, your productivity, your motivation and your energy. Ask for support from friends, family and those around you. You can support and assist each other to be more positive without being hard on yourself.
Letting go of emotions http://beatingchronicfatigue.com/letting-go-of-emotions/

subset: commoncrawl


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Can Bitcoin Really Guarantee a Secure Future for Investors. It used to be unthinkable to go out for the day without having cash with you.
But lately I find many days I set out with nothing in my wallet but plastic. What's even stranger – I sense more of a mental disconnect between using a card and really experiencing the fact that my money is leaving my hands. Yet this continuing abstraction of money from actual coins and bills to plastic cards and now numbers on a computer screen at least represents something we understand: American currency. But has the ultimate abstraction of money come to pass with the arrival of Bitcoin? In case you haven't heard of it, Bitcoin's a type of digital currency that uses sophisticated encryption technology to create and track the owner of a particular bitcoin (according to the Bitcoin website, while the Bitcoin concept is capitalized, the individual units of "currency" are not).
Japan: Negative on Rates, Positive on Bitcoin It's Cash Because We Say it Is Gold has inherent value; bitcoins have none. Forex Trading Strategies - Simple Profitable Method. The Holistic Approach to Strong, Healthy Bones. Subzero Appliance Repair Dallas,TX 972-215-7648. The Kundalini Consortium: Removal of Blockages: A Key To Exploring The Hidden Treasures Of The Mind. During a kundalini awakening, one of the most bizarre and surreal experiences is the snake moving through the spine.
This is happening constantly. Not only does it move through the spine, it moves into the brain and constantly works on changing the physiology of your cranium. The interesting part, and one that gives you an idea of how the body/mind/spirit are all one, is how changing your brain changes your thought processes and how clearing blockages in your mind impacts the clarity of your thought processes. A lot of old, rigid ideas have to be discarded before the path of the chi energy is cleared and is allowed to flow through the nadis unimpeded. What's interesting about the process is that initially it appears demonic to the person who thinks he is living in that body. When breaking these blockages, the energy has to remove your programming.
The Kundalini Consortium: The Way To Spiritual Freedom Is Counter-Egoic. The title of this post makes a big assertion and begs more questions than it answers.
What do I mean by "freedom" and what is the link between it and egoity? Many years ago when I was reading every kind of spiritual literature I could get my hands on I remember being irritated if I read a sentence like the title of this post — a sentence with little or no explanation as to its meaning. I vowed that if I ever wrote spiritual articles, I would write plainly, taking the time to drill down to the core meaning.
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June 2, 2019 | De Anza College, Cupertino, California
The Silicon Valley Kids Triathlon is one of the country's largest triathlons for kids age 2-15. Come celebrate our 20th ANNIVERSARY with an expanded finish line expo with fun games and great food, a special 20th Anniversary Medal, and new pre-race clinics offered to all registered participants (additional fee applies).
Online Registration is Closed – Race Day Registration is Available Click Register for more Information!
The guiding principle of the Silicon Valley Kid's Triathlon is two-fold. To introduce the sport of triathlon to young people in our community in a safe environment; distances are short and intended simply to expose our youngest triathletes to the basic elements of triathlon and to counteract the negative effects of too much television and electronic activity and encourage young boys and girls, ages 2–15, to lead a healthy lifestyle and enjoy the benefits of outdoor activities.
Kids helping kids. With a charitable contribution of over $150,000 to our charities, we have a unique opportunity to raise awareness and encourage young people to give back to their community.


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Price is for a medium or large flat rate box of stone. Due to the natural of the stone weights may vary. Prices include shipping.
Approximate weights:
Medium Flat Rate: 15-20lbs
Large Flat Rate: 28-35lbs
The stone will goes from a dull looking rock to a colorfully addition to any aquarium when it gets wet. Great for a scape with a ton of stone.
**Will slightly alter pH - does not pass vinegar test**


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Mid-15c., "deliver up (youngsters), train," from Latin educatus, past participle of educare "bring up, rear, educate," which is said to educere "bring out, lead forth," from ex- "out" (see ex- ) + ducere "to lead" (see duke (n.)). That means "provide education" is first attested 1580s. Linda S. Gottfredson, a professor of academic research on the College of Delaware, wrote in her article, The General Intelligence Issue that environments shared by siblings have little to do with IQ. Many people nonetheless mistakenly believe that social, psychological and financial variations amongst households create lasting and marked variations in IQ.
Subsequently, I think about that a zoo will have minimal influence for some visitors who are not self-motivated because of lack of curiosity in what they're seeing, simply as a substantially instructional lecture on chemistry would fail to teach me about SN2 reactions if I chose to sleep during it.
Educate!'s ten 12 months expansion plans purpose to create systemic change by working at the coverage level in six African nations, to advocate for extra expertise-primarily based and expertise-based training, and at the college degree in three new nations.
One other research by Brady Wagoner and Eric Jensen, called Science Studying at the Zoo : Evaluating Children's Growing Understanding of Animals and Their habitats provides attention-grabbing findings for the zoo's function in early childhood growth.
This is my request and a responsbility to inform, information, help and carve a path for all the younger ones on the market (and naturally to all of the teachers and managers of academic institutes), to please take a look at the BIGGER IMAGE, don't get caught with solely the grades that you're getting, or just that 6-8 hours that you are spending going to school or faculty and strutting again towards dwelling.


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I mentioned on my daily vlog my wife's pumpkin soup and how I think it is by far the nicest I have ever had. I said I would share her recipe for the soup on this site.
Renee's Pumpkin Soup Ingredients
- 1 full butter nut pumpkin
- 1 sweet potato
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 litre of vegetable stock
- 500ml of chicken stock
How to make:
- Dice pumpkin and sweet potato
- Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, leave the garlic cloves whole.
- Cook until pumpkin and sweet potato are quite mushy and there is minimal amount of liquid left in the pot.
- Place in blender and blend to a smooth consistency
- Enjoy


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DecoArt-Americana Paints
Why Use Tamiya Thinners?
WHY USE TAMIYA X-20A & LACQUER THINNERS Why use TAMIYA THINNERS such as X-20A and Lacquer Thinner when as we have all seen DIY Videos on YouTube of scale modellers making up their own...
Welcome to Hobbies & Beyond
Welcome to HOBBIES+BEYOND Welcome to HOBBIES+BEYOND. HOBBIES+BEYOND is your modern full spectrum Hobby Shop catering to all age groups and interests. Recreational interests are as diverse as the people enjoying...


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Welcome to California Yacht Sales
California Yacht Sales is San Diego's marketplace for buying or selling sailboats, yachts and power boats. Whether you are searching boats for sale or preparing to sell your boat, the advantages of working with California Yacht Sales are numerous and significant.
Trust your transaction to yacht brokers who have been located on Harbor Island at San Diego's largest marina for over 26 years. We are proud that we have earned the reputation for honesty and integrity in yacht sales. We work on your behalf with other brokers, surveyors, marinas, loan companies, insurers, and marine documenters to assure you of the highest level of service. Our business philosophy is simple. We are straightforward, fair and reliable yacht brokers who sincerely want to help you.
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Nov 13, 2017
The Chronomancer Updated!
November 13, 2017 Chronomancer, dungeon world, DW Class
The Chronomancer - A Dungeon World Playbook has been updated with new artwork and a few more magic items! Personally, this is one of my favorite classes from the ones I've done so far. I strongly recommend taking a look.
Nov 12, 2017
The Chronomancer - A Dungeon World Playbook
November 12, 2017 Chronomancer, dungeon world, DW Class
The chronomancer recently reached Best Copper Seller on DrivethruRPG. As it has become our custom, we are in the process of updating the class' artwork and layout to match our most recent products. This will be the third iteration for the cover art. Take a look at the new one and the ones before it and tell us which one is your favorite.
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text: Considered a "landmark work of contemporary classical music", Max Richter's solo debut Memoryhouse, an experimental album of "documentary music" recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, explores real and imaginary stories and histories. Several of the tracks, such as "Sarajevo", "November", "Arbenita", and "Last Days", deal with the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict, while others are of childhood memories e.g. "Laika's Journey". The music combines ambient sounds, voices (including that of John Cage), and poetry readings from the work of Marina Tsvetaeva. BBC Music described the album as "a masterpiece in neoclassical composition." Memoryhouse was first played live by Richter at the Barbican Centre on 24 January 2014 to coincide with a vinyl re-release of the album. Pitchfork gave the re-release an 8.7 rating, commenting on its extensive influence: "In 2002, Richter's ability to weave subtle electronics against the grand BBC Philharmonic Orchestra helped suggest new possibilities and locate fresh audiences that composers such as Nico Muhly and Michał Jacaszek have since pursued. As you listen to new work by Julianna Barwick or Jóhann Jóhannsson, thank Richter; just as Sigur Rós did with its widescreen rock, Richter showed that crossover wasn't necessarily an artistic curse."


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Do The Bacterial Vaginosis Quiz
Are You Suffering From Bacterial vaginosis?
Bacterial vaginosis is an abnormal vaginal condition that is characterized by vaginal discharge and results from an overgrowth of normal bacteria in the vagina. Bacterial vaginosis is not dangerous, but it can cause disturbing symptoms. Symptoms are vaginal discharge and bad vagina smells, although 85% of women with the condition experience no symptoms. In diagnosing bacterial vaginosis, it is important to exclude other serious infections, such as gonorrhea and Chlamydia.'
What is bacterial vaginosis?
Bacterial vaginosis is vaginal condition that can produce vaginal discharge and results from an overgrowth of normal bacteria in the vagina. In the past, the condition was called Gardnerella vaginitis, after the bacteria that were thought to cause the condition. However, the newer name, bacterial vaginosis, reflects the fact that there are a number of species of bacteria that naturally live in the vaginal area and may grow to excess. The Gardnerella organism is not the sole culprit causing the symptoms. When these multiple species of bacteria become imbalanced, a woman can have a vaginal discharge with bad vagina smells.
Treatment for Bacterial Vaginosis
Treatment options for bacterial vaginosis include oral antibiotics and vaginal gels. You can investigate the tests and treatment on this website. Serious complications of bacterial vaginosis can occur during pregnancy, and recurrence is possible even after successful treatment. If you are not certain and have serious symptoms it is sensible to visit your gynecologist.
Symptoms of bacterial vaginosis
Bacterial vaginosis is not dangerous, but it can cause disturbing symptoms like prominent bad vagina smells. Any woman with an unusual discharge should be evaluated so that more serious infections such as Chlamydia and gonorrhea can be excluded. Symptoms may also mimic those found in yeast infections of the vagina and trichomoniasis (which is a sexually-transmitted infection), and these conditions must also be excluded in women with vaginal symptoms.
Bacterial vaginosis is a common condition. It is the most common vaginal infection in women of child bearing age. Studies have shown that approximately 29% of women in are affected. Bacterial vaginosis is found in about 11% of pregnant women and approximately 60% of women who have a sexually-transmitted disease (STD).
bacterial vaginosis bad vagina odors bv quiz bv treatment vaginitis


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A widely held view is that top-down modulation of sensory information relies on an amodal control network that acts through the thalamus to regulate incoming signals. Olfaction lacks a direct thalamic projection, which suggests that it may differ from other modalities in this regard. We investigated the late positive complex (LPC) amplitudes of event-related potentials (ERP) from 28 participants, elicited by intensity-matched olfactory, auditory and visual stimuli, during a condition of focused attention, a neutral condition, and a condition in which stimuli were to be actively ignored. Amplitudes were largest during the attend condition, lowest during the ignore condition, with the neutral condition in between. A Bayesian analysis resulted in strong evidence for similar effects of task across sensory modalities. We conclude that olfaction, despite its unique neural projections, does not differ from audition and vision in terms of task-dependent neural modulation of the LPC.
This study addressed the effects of blocking spontaneous sniffing during olfactory imagery. A group of subjects (n=40) who scored high in olfactory focus and imagery ability rated the vividness in olfactory and visual imagery content under conditions of blocked sniffing, blocked vision, and a nonblocked control. The imagery stimuli consisted of 90 common words that could represent either an odor or a visual object. Blocked sniffing was expected to impair olfactory imagery vividness, but since visual imagery entails eye movements, which was not affected by the ""blocked vision"" manipulation, visual imagery ratings were effectively used as a placebo control. Confirming our hypotheses, the results showed that preventing sniffing resulted in a selectively poorer olfactory but not visual vividness, whereas blocked vision showed no effect on either the visual or olfactory vividness ratings. These observations confirm that sensorimotor activity is an important aspect for the quality of evoked olfactory images.
Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed that CR and neuroticism were positively correlated in a sample of young adults (n = 101), suggesting that persons high in neuroticism respond more negatively to environmental odors. Study 2 explored the relationships among CR, noise responsivity (NR), neuroticism, and odor perception (i.e., pleasantness and intensity) in a subset of participants (n = 40). High CR was associated with high NR. Regression analyses indicated that high CR predicted higher odor intensity ratings and low olfactory threshold (high sensitivity) predicted lower pleasantness ratings. However, neuroticism was not directly associated with odor ratings or thresholds. Overall, the results suggest that CR and odor thresholds predict perceptual ratings of odors and that high CR is associated with nonchemosensory affective traits.
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is an important lipid carrier in both the periphery and the brain. The ApoE epsilon 4 allele (ApoE4) is the single most important genetic risk-factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) while the epsilon 2 allele (ApoE2) is associated with a lower risk of AD-related neurodegeneration compared to the most common variant, epsilon 3 (ApoE3). ApoE genotype affects a variety of neural circuits; however, the olfactory system appears to provide early biomarkers of ApoE genotype effects. Here, we directly compared olfactory behavior and olfactory system physiology across all three ApoE genotypes in 6-month- and 12-month-old mice with targeted replacement for the human ApoE2, ApoE3, or ApoE4 genes. Odor investigation and habituation were assessed, along with, olfactory bulb and piriform cortical local field potential activity. The results demonstrate that while initial odor investigation was unaffected by ApoE genotype, odor habituation was impaired in E4 relative to E2 mice, with E3 mice intermediate in function. There was also significant deterioration of odor habituation from 6 to 12 months of age regardless of the ApoE genotype. Olfactory system excitability and odor responsiveness were similarly determined by ApoE genotype, with an ApoE4 > ApoE3 > ApoE2 excitability ranking. Although motivated behavior is influenced by many processes, hyper-excitability of ApoE4 mice may contribute to impaired odor habituation, while hypo-excitability of ApoE2 mice may contribute to its protective effects. Given that these ApoE mice do not have AD pathology, our results demonstrate how ApoE affects the olfactory system at early stages, prior to the development of AD.
Olfactory impairments may provide early indications of future health outcomes in older adults. Thus, an important question concerns whether these impairments can be self-assessed. Previous findings of cross-sectional studies indicate low correlations between self-reported olfactory function and objective olfactory performance. On the other hand, subjective olfactory impairments predict future dementia and mortality in longitudinal settings. No previous study has assessed the relationship between subjectively and objectively measured decline in olfaction over time. Based on data for 903 older adults derived from the Betula Study, a Swedish population-based prospective study, we tested whether rate-of-change in odor identification could be predicted from subjective olfactory decline over a time span of 10 years during which subjective and objective odor functions were assessed on 2 or 3 test occasions. Indeed, we found that participants who experienced subjective olfactory decline over the study period also had significantly steeper rates of decline in odor identification, even after adjusting for demographic, cognitive, and genetic factors that previously have been associated with performance in odor identification. This association was, however, not present in a subsample with baseline cognitive impairment. We interpret these results as evidence that when asked about whether they have an olfactory impairment or not, older persons are assessing intraindividual olfactory changes, rather than interindividual differences. Our results indicate that subjective olfactory loss reflects objective olfactory decline in cognitively intact older adults. This association might be harnessed to predict health outcomes and highlights the need to develop effective olfactory self-assessments.
To determine whether dementia could explain the association between poor olfactory performance and mortality risk within a decade-long follow-up period.
Prospective cohort study.
Betula Study, Umeå, Sweden.
A population-based sample of adult participants without dementia at baseline aged 40 to 90 (N = 1,774).
Olfactory performance using the Scandinavian Odor-Identification Test (SOIT) and self-reported olfactory function; several social, cognitive, and medical risk factors at baseline; and incident dementia during the following decade.
Within the 10-year follow-up, 411 of 1,774 (23.2%) participants had died. In a Cox model, the association between higher SOIT score and lower mortality was significant (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.74 per point interval, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.71-0.77, P < .001). The effect was attenuated, but remained significant, after controlling for age, sex, education, and health-related and cognitive variables (HR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.87-0.97, P = .001). The association between SOIT score and mortality was retained after controlling for dementia conversion before death (HR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.87-0.97, P = .001). Similar results were obtained for self-reported olfactory dysfunction.
Poor odor identification and poor self-reported olfactory function are associated with greater likelihood of future mortality. Dementia does not attenuate the association between olfactory loss and mortality, suggesting that olfactory loss might mark deteriorating health, irrespective of dementia.
The present study investigates the effect of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val66met polymorphism on change in olfactory function in a large scale, longitudinal population-based sample (n = 836). The subjects were tested on a 13 item force-choice odor identification test on two test occasions over a 5-year-interval. Sex, education, health-related factors, and semantic ability were controlled for in the statistical analyses. Results showed an interaction effect of age and BDNF val66met on olfactory change, such that the magnitude of olfactory decline in the older age cohort (70–90years old at baseline) was larger for the val homozygote carriers than for the met carriers. The older met carriers did not display larger age-related decline in olfactory function compared to the younger group. The BDNF val66met polymorphism did not affect the rate of decline in the younger age cohort (45–65years). The findings are discussed in the light of the proposed roles of BDNF in neural development and maintenance.
Most people find it difficult to name familiar odors. Many languages, including English, lack a vocabulary devoted to describing odor qualities (compared to, e.g., a color term vocabulary), and little is known about the vocabulary used to describe odors. Attempts to establish "primary odor descriptors" have been unsuccessful. To date, research on odor vocabulary has rarely been done from a data-driven, empirical perspective.
We present a study on the semantic organization of odor vocabulary, based on the distribution of words in olfactory and gustatory contexts, using a three-billion-word corpus of written English. Using a data-driven, computational linguistic approach developed in our lab, we quantify terms with respect to the degree of olfactory-semantic content they convey. We then derive the semantic organization of the top 200 olfactory-related terms, using a distributional-semantic word vector model, which represent semantic distances as multidimensional vector distances. The model is trained on olfactory and gustatory contexts, using the word2vec neural network implementation. Based on the semantic distances, we then use dimensionality reduction and clustering techniques (i.e., PCA and hierarchical clustering) to derive a 3-dimensional, corpus-based semantic space, and six principal descriptor clusters.
Using distances based on the Draveneiks odor-term ratings data set, we also derive a semantic space with six specific clusters for the Draveneiks terms. The organization and clustering of our corpus-based semantic space match with the ratings-based semantic space, thereby showing the viability of our corpus-based approach. Based on our corpus-based data, we finally propose a novel domain-general odor term taxonomy (i.e., a domain-general odor wheel) that captures the dimensions and clusters identified in our analyses.
The olfactory sense is a particularly challenging domain for cognitive science investigations of perception, memory, and language. Although many studies show that odors often are difficult to describe verbally, little is known about the associations between olfactory percepts and the words that describe them. Quantitative models of how odor experiences are described in natural language are therefore needed to understand how odors are perceived and communicated. In this study, we develop a computational method to characterize the olfaction related semantic content of words in a large text corpus of internet sites in English. We introduce two new metrics: olfactory association index (OAI, how strongly a word is associated with olfaction) and olfactory specificity index (OSI, how specific a word is in its description of odors). We validate the OAI and OSI metrics using psychophysical datasets by showing that terms with high OM have high ratings of perceived olfactory association and are used to describe highly familiar odors. In contrast, terms with high OSI have high inter-individual consistency in how they are applied to odors. Finally, we analyze Dravnieks's (1985) dataset of odor ratings in terms of OAI and OSI. This analysis reveals that terms that are used broadly (applied often but with moderate ratings) tend to be olfaction-unrelated and abstract (e.g., heavy or light; low OAI and low OSI) while descriptors that are used selectively (applied seldom but with high ratings) tend to be olfaction-related (e.g., vanilla or licorice; high OM). Thus, OAI and OSI provide behaviorally meaningful information about olfactory language. These statistical tools are useful for future studies of olfactory perception and cognition, and might help integrate research on odor perception, neuroimaging, and corpus-based linguistic models of semantic organization.
In comparison to the performance in visual object identification tasks, humans gravely underperform when it comes to naming odors. The poor ability in humans to identify olfactory stimuli has since long been established in psychophysical research; yet, the root cause of this peculiar shortcoming remains essentially unknown. Two primary explanations have been hypothesized: The first posits that poor odor naming is a consequence of neuroanatomical constraints limiting the sensory processing ability of cortical olfactory systems as well as their communication with cortical regions responsible for lexical and semantic representations. In contrast, the second hypothesis proposes that inability to name odors is caused by a mixture of social, cultural, and linguistic factors, whereby humans fail to learn strong and well-defined odor-word associations due to a lack of sufficiently odor-specific lexical labels combined with a negligence of accurate and consistent odor descriptions in everyday written and verbal communication. In this study, we attempt to disentangle and quantify the premise of the latter hypothesis. By applying computational linguistic techniques for semantic content analysis on a corpus of tens of millions of documents published online on a wide variety of topics, we quantify the semantic content, semantic similarity and usage frequency of a set of odor-descriptor words used in a previous psychophysical study to classify odors (Dravnieks, 1985). Crucially, we disambiguate between the semantic content in olfactory and non-olfactory contexts, allowing for an estimation of the semantic ambiguity (number of different meanings attributed to the word), olfactory ambiguity (number of types of smells related to the word), commonness (relative frequency in all contexts), and odor applicability (relative frequency in olfactory contexts) of the odor descriptors. These metrics are compared to the applicability values of the descriptors as reported in Dravnieks' dataset (1985).
Characterizing aging-related decline trajectories in mental abilities, and relationships of the epsilon 4 allele of the Apolipoprotein gene, helps to identify individuals at high risk for dementia. However, longitudinal changes in olfactory and non-olfactory cognitive abilities have not been investigated in relation to the epsilon 4 allele. In the present study, participants from a large population-based study (657 middle-aged and 556 old) were tested over 10 years on their performance on an odor identification task and three non-olfactory cognitive tasks; MMSE, episodic memory, and semantic memory. Our key finding is that in middle-aged participants, odor identification declined twice as fast for epsilon 4/4 homozygotes, compared to non-carriers. However, in old participants, the epsilon 4/4 homozygotes showed an impaired odor identification ability, but they declined at a similar rate as the non-carriers. Furthermore, in old participants all assessments displayed aging-related declines, but exaggerated declines in epsilon 4-carriers were found only in MMSE and episodic memory assessments. In sum, we present evidence that odor identification ability starts to decline already in middle-aged, and that carriers of epsilon 4/4, who are at highest risk of developing dementia, decline twice as fast. Our results may have implications for use of odor identification assessment in detection of early-stage dementia.
Difficulties in auditory and phonological processing affect semantic processing in speech comprehension for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. However, little is known about brain responses related to semantic processing in this group. We investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) in DHH children with cochlear implants (CIs) and/or hearing aids (HAs), and in normally hearing controls (NH). We used a semantic priming task with spoken word primes followed by picture targets. In both DHH children and controls, cortical response differences between matching and mismatching targets revealed a typical N400 effect associated with semantic processing. Children with CI had the largest mismatch response despite poor semantic abilities overall; Children with CI also had the largest ERP differentiation between mismatch types, with small effects in within-category mismatch trials (target from same category as prime) and large effects in between-category mismatch trials (where target is from a different category than prime), compared to matching trials. Children with NH and HA had similar responses to both mismatch types. While the large and differentiated ERP responses in the CI group were unexpected and should be interpreted with caution, the results could reflect less precision in semantic processing among children with CI, or a stronger reliance on predictive processing.
Testing one's memory of previously studied information reduces the rate of forgetting, compared to restudy. However, little is known about how this direct testing effect applies to action phrases (e.g., wash the car) - a learning material relevant to everyday memory. As action phrases consist of two different components, a verb (e.g., wash) and a noun (e.g., car), testing can either be implemented as noun-cued recall of verbs or verb-cued recall of nouns, which may differently affect later memory performance. In the present study, we investigated the effect of testing for these two recall types, using verbally encoded action phrases as learning materials. Results showed that repeated study-test practice, compared to repeated study-restudy practice, decreased the forgetting rate across 1 week to a similar degree for both noun-cued and verb-cued recall types. However, noun-cued recall of verbs initiated more new subsequent learning during the first restudy, compared to verb-cued recall of nouns. The study provides evidence that testing has benefits on both subsequent restudy and long-term retention of action-relevant materials, but that these benefits are differently expressed with testing via noun-cued versus verb-cued recall.
Testing memory typically enhances subsequent re-encoding of information ("indirect" testing effect) and, as compared to restudy, it also benefits later long-term retention ("direct" testing effect). We investigated the effect of testing on subsequent restudy and 1-week retention of action events (e.g. "water the plant"). In addition, we investigated if the type of recall practice (noun-cued vs. verb-cued) moderates these testing benefits. The results showed an indirect testing effect that increased following noun-cued recall of verbs as compared to verb-cued recall of nouns. In contrast, a direct testing effect on the forgetting rate of performed actions was not reliably observed, neither for noun- nor verb-cued recall. Thus, to the extent that this study successfully dissociated direct and indirect testing-based enhancements, they seem to be differentially effective for performed actions, and may rely on partially different mechanisms.
The objective of this study was to examine the association between performance in odor identification and future mortality in a community cohort of adults aged between 40 and 90 years. We assessed olfactory performance with a 13-item-version of the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test (SOIT). The results showed that during follow-up (mean=9.4 years, standard deviation=2.23), 411 of 1774 (23.2%) participants died. In a Cox model, the association between higher SOIT score and mortality was highly significant (hazard ratio [HR]=0.74, per point interval, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.71–0.77, p<0.001). The effect was attenuated, but remained significant after controlling for age, sex, education, and health and cognitive variables that were also associated with an increased risk of mortality (HR=0.92, 95% CI=0.87–0.97, p=0.001). Controlling for dementia conversion prior to death did not attenuate the association between SOIT score and mortality (HR=0.92, 95% CI=0.87–0.97, p=0.001). Similar results were obtained for olfactory sensitivity as assessed by self-report. Overall, the present findings show that poor odor identification performance is associated with an increased likelihood of future mortality in middle-aged and older adults, after controlling for social, cognitive, and medical risk factors. Most importantly, controlling for the development of dementia did not attenuate the association between odor identification and mortality, suggesting that olfactory decline might mark deteriorating health also irrespective of dementia.
This study examined the impact of age and sex on olfactory function as determined by a cued odor identification test and on semantic knowledge as indexed by a vocabulary test using a large population-based sample. 1497 healthy adults varying in age from 35 to 95 years were assessed in odor identification and in vocabulary proficiency. The results showed that aging exhibited negative repercussions on performance in both tests, although the age effect was stronger in the olfactory task. Corroborating previous observations, females identified more odors than men irrespective of age. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Authoritarianism has resurfaced as a research topic in political psychology, as it appears relevant to explain current political trends. Authoritarian attitudes have been consistently linked to feelings of disgust, an emotion that is thought to have evolved to protect the organism from contamination. We hypothesized that body odour disgust sensitivity (BODS) might be associated with authoritarianism, as chemo-signalling is a primitive system for regulating interpersonal contact and disease avoidance, which are key features also in authoritarianism. We used well-validated scales for measuring BODS, authoritarianism and related constructs. Across two studies, we found that BODS is positively related to authoritarianism. In a third study, we showed a positive association between BODS scores and support for Donald Trump, who, at the time of data collection, was a presidential candidate with an agenda described as resonating with authoritarian attitudes. Authoritarianism fully explained the positive association between BODS and support for Donald Trump. Our findings highlight body odour disgust as a new and promising domain in political psychology research. Authoritarianism and BODS might be part of the same disease avoidance framework, and our results contribute to the growing evidence that contemporary social attitudes might be rooted in basic sensory functions.
The behavioral immune system (BIS) provides us a set of emotional and behavioral responses to avoid the threat of pathogens. Individual differences in BIS can make some individuals endorse social values that minimize the contact with groups that might be perceived unfamiliar or deviant. Disgust is one of the emotions that is most consistently involved in the BIS and it has been found to be consistently related to socially conservative attitudes. Disgust sensitivity to body odors plays a crucial role in the BIS but it has been largely understated by research linking disgust sensitivity. We the developed a new scale that measures individual differences in body odors disgust sensitivity (BODS) and assessed how this measure related to conservative attitudes. We hypothesized that the BODS should relate to social, but not economic, conservatism, as only the latter should share common motives with the BIS. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the BODS should share more core motives with conservatism and thus it should at least partially mediate the relationship between general disgust sensitivity measures and conservatism. We developed a 30 items measure of BODS where participants had to rate how they would feel disgusted in five different scenarios involving six body odors consistently linked to disease detection. We ran three studies (N = 200, N = 159 and N = 269) through Amazon Mechanical Turk where we collected participants' differences in: BODS, three domains of disgust (TDD) (studies 1-3), disgust sensitivity (DS, studies 2-3), Perceived Vulnerability to Disease (PVD, studies 2-3) and in social conservatism (Right-Wing Authoritarianism RWA, studies 1-3) and economic conservatism (Social Dominance Orientation, SDO, study 3). We ran zero order correlations to assess the relationship between BODS, other Disgust Sensitivity measures and conservatism measures. Akaike Information Criterion based stepwise model selection procedures were used to identify the variables that mostly accounted for participants' variance in conservatism. Mediation analyses were ran to test the hypothesis that BODS could mediate, at least partially the relationship between general disgust sensitivity measures and conservatism.
Results: Across three studies we found that 1) BODS has good convergent validity with other measures of general disgust sensitivity (Studies 1-3) 2) BODS is consistently and independently related to RWA even when taking into account DS-R and/or TDD (Studies 1-3) 3) BODS relates to social, but not economic conservatism 4) BODS at least partially mediates the relationship between general disgust sensitivity measures and social conservatism (Studies 1-3). Our results show that body odor disgust sensitivity independently predicts socially conservative attitudes, and our findings suggest that the study of the biological basis of social attitudes would benefit from an increased focus on basic sensory-emotional processes. While our approach is broadly congruent with current theoretical frameworks emphasizing the evolutionary roots of disgust in basic chemosensory processes, an increased empirical focus on body odor perception might provide a unique link between pathogen detection and social regulation mechanisms.
Disgust plays a crucial role in the avoidance of pathogen threats. In many species, body odors provide important information related to health and disease, and body odors are potent elicitors of disgust in humans. With this background, valid assessments of body odor disgust sensitivity are warranted. In the present article, we report the development and psychometric validation of the Body Odor Disgust Scale (BODS), a measure suited to assess individual differences in disgust reaction to a variety of body odors. Collected data from 3 studies (total n = 528) show that the scale can be used either as a unidimensional scale or as a scale that reflects two hypothesized factors: sensitivity to one's own body odors versus those of others. Guided by our results, we reduced the scale to 12 items that capture the essence of these 2 factors. The final version of the BODS shows an excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha s > 0.9). The BODS subscales show convergent validity with other general disgust scales, as well as with other olfactory functions measures and with aspects of personality that are related to pathogen avoidance. A fourth study confirmed the construct validity of the BODS and its measurement invariance to gender. Moreover, we found that, compared with other general disgust scales, the BODS is more strongly related to perceived vulnerability to disease. The BODS is a brief and valid assessment of trait body odor disgust sensitivity.
In this preregistered study, we investigated how different types of moral violations elicit disgust vs. anger, and the role of disgust sensitivity in responding to moral violations. Our results show that purity violations primarily elicit disgust reactions, and individual differences in body odor disgust sensitivity moderates reactions to purity violations.
Detecting pathogen threats and avoiding disease is fundamental to human survival. The behavioral immune system (BIS) framework outlines a set of psychological functions that may have evolved for this purpose. Disgust is a core emotion that plays a pivotal role in the BIS, as it activates the behavioral avoidance motives that prevent people from being in contact with pathogens. To date, there has been little agreement on how disgust sensitivity might underlie moral judgments. Here, we investigated moral violations of "purity" (assumed to elicit disgust) and violations of "harm" (assumed to elicit anger). We hypothesized that individual differences in BIS-related traits would be associated with greater disgust (vs. anger) reactivity to, and greater condemnation of Purity (vs. Harm) violations. The study was pre-registered (https://osf.io/57nm8/). Participants (N = 632) rated scenarios concerning moral wrongness or inappropriateness and regarding disgust and anger. To measure individual differences in the activation of the BIS, we used our recently developed Body Odor Disgust Scale (BODS), a BIS-related trait measure that assesses individual differences in feeling disgusted by body odors. In line with our predictions, we found that scores on the BODS relate more strongly to affective reactions to Purity, as compared to Harm, violations. In addition, BODS relates more strongly to Moral condemnation than to perceived Inappropriateness of an action, and to the condemnation of Purity violations as compared to Harm violations. These results suggest that the BIS is involved in moral judgment, although to some extent this role seems to be specific for violations of "moral purity," a response that might be rooted in disease avoidance. Data and scripts to analyze the data are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository: https://osf.io/tk4x5/. Planned analyses are available at https://osf.io/x6g3u/.
Body odors are potent triggers of disgust and regulate social behaviors in many species. The role of olfaction in disgust-associated behaviors has received scant attention in the research literature, in part because olfactory disgust assessments have required laboratory testing with odors. We have devised the Body Odor Disgust Scale (BODS) to facilitate research on olfactory disgust. In this study, we evaluated whether individual differences in BODS scores would be associated with the perception of disgust for sweat samples in a laboratory setting. Results show that BODS was a strong predictor of disgust ratings of sweat samples even when controlling for general disgust sensitivity. In contrast, odor intensity ratings were unrelated to BODS scores. Our findings suggest that the BODS scores reflect body odor disgust perception. The BODS scale might facilitate research on olfactory disgust responses and associated behaviors.
Human olfactory function requires the identification of everyday odors. A characteristic feature of olfaction is that most people find it hard to identify and name common odors, and when odors are presented simultaneously in mixtures, performance is even further compromised. Few studies have systematically assessed how training might enhance identification of single odors and mixtures. This study compared how odor identification training with either single odors or binary mixtures affected identification performance, as well as transfer effects to untrained tasks and odors. Twenty- seven healthy participants (22 F; 28.0 +/- 4.7 years old) completed identification training of 8 odors using a list of 16 veridical names. The study included 8 training sessions, as well as pretest and posttest evaluations. Results suggest notable effects of learning, as well as transfer to novel tasks and odors. Overall, training with single odors led to slightly better results than the binary mixture condition, suggesting that in novices, odor identification may be facilitated via consolidation of single odor objects, before learning to dissociate binary mixtures. Overall, odor identification may be trained to generate transfer of learning, although transfer effects were observed in both training methods. Our work suggests that odor identification abilities, while often limited, are highly trainable.
The timing of olfactory behavioral decisions may provide an important source of information about how the human olfactory-perceptual system is organized. This review integrates results from olfactory response-time (RT) measurements from a perspective of mental chronometry. Based on these findings, a new cascade model of human olfaction is presented. Results show that main perceptual decisions are executed with high accuracy within about 1 s of sniff onset. The cascade model proposes the existence of distinct processing stages within this brief time-window. According to the cascade model, different perceptual features become accessible to the perceiver at different time-points, and the output of earlier processing stages provides the input for later processing stages. The olfactory cascade starts with detecting the odor, which is followed by establishing an odor object. The odor object, in turn, triggers systems for determining odor valence and edibility. Evidence for the cascade model comes from studies showing that RTs for odor valence and edibility assessment are predicted by the shorter RTs needed to establish the odor object. Challenges for future research include innovative task designs for olfactory RT experiments and the integration of the behavioral processing sequence into the underlying cortical processes using complementary RT measures and neuroimaging methods.
Valence and edibility are two important features of olfactory perception, but it remains unclear how they are read out from an olfactory input. For a given odor object (e.g., the smell of rose or garlic), does perceptual identification of that object necessarily precede retrieval of information about its valence and edibility, or alternatively, are these processes independent? In the present study, we studied rapid, binary perceptual decisions regarding odor detection, object identity, valence, and edibility for a set of common odors. We found that decisions regarding odor-object identity were faster than decisions regarding odor valence or edibility, but slower than detection. Mediation analysis revealed that odor valence and edibility decision response times were predicted by a model in which odor-object identity served as a mediator along the perceptual pathway from detection to both valence and edibility. According to this model, odor valence is determined through both a low road that bypasses odor objects and a high road that utilizes odor-object information. Edibility evaluations are constrained to processing via the high road. The results outline a novel causal framework that explains how major perceptual features might be rapidly extracted from odors through engagement of odor objects early in the processing stream.
Is human odor perception guided by memory or emotion? Object-centered accounts predict that recognition of unique odor qualities precedes valence decoding. Valence-centered accounts predict the opposite: that stimulus-driven valence responses precede and guide identification. In a speeded response time study, participants smelled paired odors, presented sequentially, and indicated whether the second odor in each pair belonged to the same category as the first (object evaluation task) or whether the second odor was more pleasant than the first (valence evaluation task). Object evaluation was faster and more accurate than valence evaluation. In a complementary experiment, participants performed an identification task, in which they indicated whether an odor matched the previously presented word label. Responses were quicker for odors preceded by semantically matching, rather than nonmatching, word labels, but results showed no evidence of interference from valence on nonmatching trials. These results are in accordance with object-centered accounts of odor perception.
Background Little is known about how rapid electrocortical responses (event-related potentials; ERPs) to affective pictures are modulated by benzodiazepine agonists. The present study investigated effects of oxazepam (20 mg p.o.) on behavioral measures and ERPs associated with affective picture processing during perception and recognition memory retrieval. Methods Forty-three healthy young adults were given oxazepam or placebo treatment under a double-blind experimental procedure. Affective pictures (negatively arousing or neutral) elicited ERP responses and participants rated pictures for emotionality (during incidental encoding) and recognition. Results Oxazepam did not affect perceptual (P1, P2) or emotional (early posterior negativity and late parietal positivity) ERPs or ratings during perception. However, oxazepam impaired recognition performance and decreased positive mid-frontal ERP component at 420-450 ms for old vs. new pictures. The memory impairment was retained at the delayed memory test. Conclusions Oxazepam does not selectively influence electrocortical or perceptual indexes of emotional perception or emotional memory. Rather, it blocks memory consolidation independent of valence category. These findings indicate that ERPs can be of use in assessing effects of benzodiazepines on memory-related processes.
Most people find it profoundly difficult to name familiar smells. This difficulty persists even when perceptual odor processing and visual object naming are unimpaired, implying deficient sensory-specific interactions with the language system. Here we synthesize recent behavioral and neuroimaging data to develop a biologically informed framework for olfactory lexical processing in the human brain. Our central premise is that the difficulty in naming common objects through olfactory (compared with visual) stimulation is the end result of cumulative effects occurring at three successive stages of the olfactory language pathway: object perception, lexical semantic integration, and verbalization. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms by which the language network interacts with olfaction can yield unique insights into the elusive nature of olfactory naming.
Odors are surprisingly difficult to name, but the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is poorly understood. In experiments using event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the physiological basis of odor naming with a paradigm where olfactory and visual object cues were followed by target words that either matched or mismatched the cue. We hypothesized that word processing would not only be affected by its semantic congruency with the preceding cue, but would also depend on the cue modality (olfactory or visual). Performance was slower and less precise when linking a word to its corresponding odor than to its picture. The ERP index of semantic incongruity (N400), reflected in the comparison of nonmatching versus matching target words, was more constrained to posterior electrode sites and lasted longer on odor-cue (vs picture-cue) trials. In parallel, fMRI cross-adaptation in the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) was observed in response to words when preceded by matching olfactory cues, but not by matching visual cues. Time-series plots demonstrated increased fMRI activity in OFC and ATL at the onset of the odor cue itself, followed by response habituation after processing of a matching (vs nonmatching) target word, suggesting that predictive perceptual representations in these regions are already established before delivery and deliberation of the target word. Together, our findings underscore the modality-specific anatomy and physiology of object identification in the human brain.
The ɛ4 allele of the Apolipoprotein E gene is a genetic risk factor for late-onset dementia of the Alzheimers' type (DAT), which is characterized by loss of both episodic memoryand olfactory functions. Little is known about the possible role of ɛ4 in the association between ongoing episodic memory decline and olfactory deficits in the general population, but such information is relevant in determining the relevance of olfaction as a marker of DAT risk. The present study was based on a large, population-based sample (n=1087, aged 45–90 years, of which 324 were ɛ4-carriers). Episodic memory change rates were established using data collected every 5 years for a 10–20 year interval leading up to an olfactory assessment using the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test at the last wave of data collection. Participants were classified according to whether or not their episodic memory ability declined more rapidly than the age-typical norm (by >1SD). Our main result is that only in ɛ4-carriers was episodic memory decline associated with odor identification impairment. In individuals without ɛ4, odor identification was unrelated to episodic memory decline status. Follow-up analyses indicated that this moderation by ɛ4 was due to the olfactory nature of the identification test, and that the effect was not caused by 63 individuals with dementia. Our results suggest that the ɛ4 determines the functional association between ongoing episodic memory decline and olfaction. These findings are consistent with the notion that ɛ4-carriers with DAT, compared to non-carriers, display a cortical atrophy pattern that is more focused on mediotemporal lobe regions supporting olfactory and episodic memory functions. Olfactory and memory assessments might provide complementary information on mediotemporal atrophy prior to clinical dementia onset, but the ɛ4 should be considered when using olfactory assessment as an early-stage indicator.
Research Problem: The purpose of this research synthesis is to identify new opportunities for smell-enabled games based upon current olfactory research, and to present early game concepts that have emerged from our empirical assessments.
Literature Review: We briefly summarize key projects in the history of scent technologies for film and media. Human-Computer Interaction researchers have also explored a number of uses for scent delivery in interactive digital media. Recent developments in olfactory psychology and neuroscience research suggest that a fruitful avenue for exploration is to develop learning games that expand olfactory capacity.
Methodology: We have conducted two studies of computer-based perceptual and cognitive olfactory tasks.
Mixture perception experiment: We designed a perceptual experiment where the task was to correctly estimate the intensity of odor components in a blend of coffee and tea. Blended odors were presented to 10 healthy adults by means of a computer-controlled olfactometer. Following each stimulation, the participant used a computer interface to estimate the intensity of components of the blend.
Event-based memory experiment: We have developed a digital olfactory version of the children's game "Memory." The game interface consists of 32 white squares that are presented in a grid pattern on the screen and that, when participants click on them, triggers the release of one of eight possible smells from the olfactometer. Fifteen healthy adult participants were tested in 10 laboratory sessions distributed over three weeks.
Results and Conclusions: Our empirical results suggest that smell training through learning games holds promise as a means of improving cognitive function. The results of our event-based memory experiment suggest that both olfactory and visual memory capacities might have benefitted from olfactory game training. The results of our mixture perception experiment indicate that binary odor mixtures might provide a suitable starting point for perceptual training, and we suggest that a smell-enabled game might include adaptive difficulty by progressively introducing more complex mixtures. We have used event-based memory and mixture perception as "olfactory targets" for game mechanic development, and present early design concepts for "Smelly Genes" and "Scenter." Finally, we discuss future directions and challenges for this new, interdisciplinary research topic.
The ApoE acme is expressed in olfactory brain structures and is believed to play a role in neuronal regenerative processes as well as in development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia The epsilon 4 allele lots been reported to be associated with compromised odor identification ability in the elderly, and this deficit has been interpreted as a sign of pre-diagnostic AD However, because it has not been demonstrated that the relationship between the epsilon 4 allele and odor identification is mediated by dementia, it is possible that the epsilon 4 allele may have an effect on odor identification over and above any effects of dementia. The present study investigated effects of ApoE-status on odor identification in a lame, population-based sample (n =1236) of adults (45-80 years), who were assessed for dementia at time of testing and 5 years later The results showed that the epsilon 4 allele was associated with an odor identification deficit among, elderly participants (75-80) Critically. this effect remained after current and pre-diagnostic dementia, vocabulary, global cognitive status and health variables were partialled out The present results suggest that the ApoE gene plays a role in olfactory functioning that is independent of dementia conversion within 5 years
It is notoriously difficult to name odours. Without the benefit of non-olfactory information, even common household smells elude our ability to name them. The neuroscientific basis for this olfactory language 'deficit' is poorly understood, and even basic models to explain how odour inputs gain access to transmodal representations required for naming have not been put forward. This study used patients with primary progressive aphasia, a clinical dementia syndrome characterized by primary deficits in language, to investigate the interactions between olfactory inputs and lexical access by assessing behavioural performance of olfactory knowledge and its relationship to brain atrophy. We specifically hypothesized that the temporal pole would play a key role in linking odour object representations to transmodal networks, given its anatomical proximity to olfactory and visual object processing areas. Behaviourally, patients with primary progressive aphasia with non-semantic subtypes were severely impaired on an odour naming task, in comparison with an age-matched control group. However, with the availability of picture cues or word cues, odour matching performance approached control levels, demonstrating an inability to retrieve but not to recognize the name and nature of the odorant. The magnitude of cortical thinning in the temporal pole was found to correlate with reductions in odour familiarity and odour matching to visual cues, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus correlated with both odour naming and matching. Volumetric changes in the mediodorsal thalamus correlated with the proportion of categorical mismatch errors, indicating a possible role of this region in error-signal monitoring to optimize recognition of associations linked to the odour. A complementary analysis of patients with the semantic subtype of primary progressive aphasia, which is associated with marked temporopolar atrophy, revealed much more pronounced impairments of odour naming and matching. In identifying the critical role of the temporal pole and inferior frontal gyrus in transmodal linking and verbalization of olfactory objects, our findings provide a new neurobiological foundation for understanding why even common odours are hard to name.
Olfactory impairments are present in common neurodegenerative disorders and predict conversion to dementia in non-demented individuals with cognitive impairment. In cognitively intact elderly, evidence is sparse regarding the role of olfactory deficits in predicting cognitive impairment. The present study investigated predictors of 5-year prospective decline in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in a large (n = 501), population-based sample of elderly (65–90 years) individuals. All participants were genotyped for the ApoE gene, assessed for health factors, and were non-demented at the baseline assessment. After partialling out the influences of demographic and health-factors at baseline and dementia at follow-up, poor odor identification ability in combination with older age and the ApoE-ε4 allele predicted larger prospective global cognitive decline. This effect could not be produced by a vocabulary test. In sum, the findings suggest that an olfactory deficit can dissociate between benign and malign global cognitive development in non-demented, very old ε4-carriers, who are at high risk of developing dementia.
During multisensory experiences, visual stimuli typically suppress non-visual stimuli. Such "visual dominance" effects might stem from inhibition across sensory systems. Does visual dominance generalize to odor-visual pairings? We developed a categorization task (fruits vs flowers) with congruent and incongruent odor-picture pairings and a delayed auditory response target that informed about categorization modality (olfactory vs visual). We investigated behavioral and cortical (ERP) responses. For congruent pairings, we found better accuracy for visual decisions. However, for incongruent pairings, we insteadobserved faster RTs for olfactory decisions. Incongruent olfactory stimuli thus interfere more with visualdecisions than vice versa. Our ERP results from auditory targets on incongruent trials gave supporting evidence of olfactory suppression over visual perception; higher P300 amplitudes were more strongly correlated with faster RTs during visual categorization. A late "slow wave" ERP effect had later onset andlonger latency during visual vs olfactory decisions. This indicates that in order to rapidly and successfully categorize visual stimuli (and ignore incongruent odors), participants need to allocate additional attentional and working memory resources. In sum, both behavioral and ERP effects suggest a higher level of interference from incongruent olfactory, compared to visual, input. These findings suggest that asymmetric inhibition across sensory systems is a fruitful way of studying sensory dominance, and that olfactory stimuli can dominate visual stimuli, refuting the general notion of "visual dominance".
In psychological experiments, behavioral speed varies across trials, and this variation is often associated with corresponding fluctuations in cortical activity. Little is known about such cortical variations in semantic priming tasks where target words are matched with preceding sensory object cues. Here, two visually presented target words (pear and lilac) were repeatedly cued by corresponding odors or pictures, and the participants were to indicate matching or nonmatching combinations. Data were split in behaviorally fast versus slow trials. We hypothesized that slow trials would be associated with higher prestimulus alpha activity and reduced ERP amplitudes, and that response-time differences between odor-cued and picture-cued trials would be especially large in slow behavioral trials. Results confirmed that slow trials showed increased alpha-band activity prior to word target onset, as well as amplitude decreases in the sensory P1 and semantic N400 components. However, no interactions between cue-modality and processing speed were observed. Instead, odor-cue integration responses were uniquely delayed on incongruent trials, a novel behavioral effect that was not observed in EEG measures. The results show that semantic integration speed is reflected in cortical activity before and during stimulus processing. Behavioral interactions with cue modality did not correspond to observed cortical activity changes, perhaps because olfactory circuits are not readily observed in scalp-recorded EEG. We conclude that combining behavioral speed variability and cortical EEG measures is useful in understanding the fluctuating nature of cognitive processing sequences.
Human olfaction is sensitive but poorly encoded by language. A new study comparing horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers suggests that the strength of odor language is dependent on life-style. This work may stimulate olfactory research at the crossroads between biology and culture.
The ability to recognize and identify a smell is highly dependent on multisensory context and expectation, for example, hearing the name of the odor source. Here, we develop a novel auditory-odor association task in rats, wherein the animal learns that a specific auditory tone, when associated with a specific odor, predicts reward (Go signal), whereas the same tone associated with a different odor, or vice versa, is not (No-Go signal). The tone occurs prior to the onset of the odor, allowing physiological analyses of sensory-evoked local field potential (LFP) activity to each stimulus in primary auditory cortex and anterior piriform cortex (aPCX). In trained animals that have acquired the task, both auditory and subsequent olfactory cues activate [3 band oscillations in both the auditory cortex and PCX, suggesting multisensory integration. Naive animals show no such multisensory responses, suggesting the response is learned. In addition to the learned multisensory evoked responses, functional connectivity between auditory cortex and PCX, as assessed with spectral coherence and phase lag index (PLI), is enhanced. Importantly, both the multi-sensory evoked responses and the functional connectivity are context-dependent. In trained animals, the same auditory stimuli presented in the home cage evoke no responses in auditory cortex or PCX, and functional connectivity between the sensory cortices is reduced. Together, the results demonstrate how learning and context shape the expression of multisensory cortical processing. Given that odor identification impairment is associated with preclinical dementia in humans, the mechanisms suggested here may help develop experimental models to assess effects of neuropathology on behavior.
People consistently show preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves, a phenomenon termed altruism. We investigated if perception of one's body signals - interoception - may be underlying such behaviors. We tested if participants' sensitivity to their own heartbeat predicted their decision on a choice between self-interest and altruism, and if improving this sensitivity through training would make participants more altruistic. Across these two experiments, interoceptive sensitivity predicted altruism measured through monetary generosity. Improving interoceptive sensitivity did, however, not lead to more altruistic behaviour. We conclude that there is a unique link between interoception and altruistic behaviour, likely established over an individual's history of altruistic acts, and the body responses they elicit. The findings suggest that humans might literally 'listen to their heart' to guide their altruistic behavior.
Loss of olfactory function is common in old age, but evidence regarding qualitative olfactory dysfunction in the general older population is scarce. The current study investigates the prevalence and correlates of phantom smell experiences (phantosmia) in a population-based study (Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen [SNAC-K]) of Swedish adults (n = 2569) aged between 60 and 90 years. Phantosmia was assessed through a standardized interview and defined as reporting having experienced an odor percept in the absence of any stimuli in the surrounding environment that could emit the odor. The relationships between phantosmia and demographic, genetic, health-related, and behavioral variables were analyzed with hierarchical logistic regression analyses. The overall prevalence of phantom smells was 4.9%, and was associated with female gender, carrying the met allele of the BDNF gene, higher vascular risk burden, and reporting distorted smell sensations (parosmia). Olfactory dysfunction was, however, not related to phantosmia. The most frequently reported phantom smell was smoky/burnt. A novel finding was that some individuals reported phantom smells with an autobiographical connotation. The results from this study indicate that the prevalence of phantosmia in the general older population is not negligible and that some factors that are beneficial for preserved olfactory function, such as female gender and the BDNF met allele, are also associated with the occurrence of phantom smells.
We examined whether conversion to dementia can be predicted by self-reported olfactory impairment and/or by an inability to identify odors. Common forms of dementia involve an impaired sense of smell, and poor olfactory performance predicts cognitive decline among the elderly. We followed a sample of 1529 participants, who were within a normal range of overall cognitive function at baseline, over a 10-year period during which 159 were classified as having a dementia disorder. Dementia conversion was predicted from demographic variables, Mini-Mental State Examination score, and olfactory assessments. Self-reported olfactory impairment emerged as an independent predictor of dementia. After adjusting for effects of other predictors, individuals who rated their olfactory sensitivity as worse than normal were more likely to convert to dementia than those who reported normal olfactory sensitivity (odds ratio [OR] = 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.40, 3.37]). Additionally, low scores on an odor identification test also predicted conversion to dementia (OR per 1 point increase = 0.89; 95% CI [0.81, 0.98]), but these two effects were additive. We suggest that assessing subjective olfactory complaints might supplement other assessments when evaluating the risk of conversion to dementia. Future studies should investigate which combination of olfactory assessments is most useful in predicting dementia conversion. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1-9)
Odors affect perception of social cues in visual environments. Although often underestimated, people use their sense of smell to guide approach or avoidance behavior in social contexts. However, underlying psychological mechanisms are not well known. Prior work suggested olfactory effects are due to increased attention or arousal, or depend on the congruency between olfactory and visual cues. Our aim was to assess how odors influence attentional processes using a dot-probe task with odor-congruent and odor-incongruent facial expressions (happy, disgusted and neutral expressions paired with pleasant odor, unpleasant odor and no-odor). In a pre-registered analysis plan, we hypothesized either faster reaction times attributed to arousal from odors in general, or to faces that were emotionally congruent with the odors. We also hypothesized time-on-task effects specific to the odor compared to the control condition. Using Bayesian linear models, we found strong evidence that the faces were rated as more arousing and emotional in odor contexts. However, the dot-probe task did in fact not provide an effective cue to selective visual attention, and odors did not modulate overall attention to the faces. However, we found a time-on-task effect such that in the unpleasant odor condition, response times decreased over time, whereas in the no-odor and pleasant condition there was a slight increase in response times. We conclude that time-on-task effects is an interesting venue for odor-visual interaction research, and such effects might explain inconsistent findings in the prior research literature.
Disgust is a core emotion evolved to detect and avoid the ingestion of poisonous food as well as the contact with pathogens and other harmful agents. Previous research has shown that multisensory presentation of olfactory and visual information may strengthen the processing of disgust-relevant information. However, it is not known whether these findings extend to dynamic facial stimuli that changes from neutral to emotionally expressive, or if individual differences in trait body odor disgust may influence the processing of disgust-related information. In this preregistered study, we tested whether a classification of dynamic facial expressions as happy or disgusted, and an emotional evaluation of these facial expressions, would be affected by individual differences in body odor disgust sensitivity, and by exposure to a sweat-like, negatively valenced odor (valeric acid), as compared with a soap-like, positively valenced odor (lilac essence) or a no-odor control. Using Bayesian hypothesis testing, we found evidence that odors do not affect recognition of emotion in dynamic faces even when body odor disgust sensitivity was used as moderator. However, an exploratory analysis suggested that an unpleasant odor context may cause faster RTs for faces, independent of their emotional expression. Our results further our understanding of the scope and limits of odor effects on facial perception affect and suggest further studies should focus on reproducibility, specifying experimental circumstances where odor effects on facial expressions may be present versus absent.
Successful social interaction relies on the accurate decoding of other peoples' emotional signals, and their contextual integration. However, little is known about how contextual odors may lead to modulation of cortical processing in response to facial expressions. We investigated how unpleasant and pleasant contextual background odors affected emotion perception and cortical event-related potential (ERP) responses to pictures of faces expressing happy, neutral and disgusted facial expressions. Faces were, regardless of expression, rated more positively in the pleasant odor condition and more negatively in the unpleasant odor condition. Faces were overall rated as more emotionally arousing in the presence of an odor, irrespective of its valence. Contextual odors also interacted with facial expressions, such that happy faces were rated as especially non-arousing in the unpleasant odor condition. The early, face-sensitive N170 ERP component also displayed an interaction effect. Here, disgusted faces were affected by the odor context such that the N170 revealed a relatively larger negativity in the context of a pleasant odor compared with an unpleasant odor. There were no odor effects on the responses to faces in other measured ERP components (P1, VPP, P2, and LPP). These results suggest that odors bias socioemotional perception early stages of the visual processing stream. However, effects may vary across emotional expressions and measurements.
Emotional processing of emotional pictures is often indexed by two electrocortical responses: the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). Because emotional pictures often vary in nonemotional features (e.g., composition, human content, spatial frequency), researchers often match pictures on nonemotional features to avoid their confounding effects on the EPN and LPP. However, this matching is tedious and might be unnecessary if the confounding effects could be shown to be negligible. In an item-analysis of mean amplitudes to 400 negative to neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), nonemotional features had larger effects on EPN than LPP. Picture composition suppressed the relationship between emotion and EPN. Further, data simulations showed that for small picture sets, nonemotional features inflated the correlation between emotion and LPP. Therefore, nonemotional features suppress the EPN and enhance the LPP, particularly so in small picture sets.


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August 5, 2016
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- 3 beds
- 1 baths
- $176,600 price
- 870702 mls id
- Square Feet: 1,101 sqft
- Year Built: 2013
- Lot Size: 0.13 acres
- Neighborhood: Sal Tillo Un 01
- Status: Active
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Updated: 13th February, 2017 1:51 AM.
6271 Viramontes Road NW Albuquerque, NM