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Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind
An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year
“Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion.” —Science
Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli “spark” neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. We think of the brain as a space we can map: here it responds to faces, there it perceives a sensation. But the sense of smell—only recently attracting broader attention in neuroscience—doesn’t work this way. So what does the nose tell the brain, and how does the brain understand it?
A. S. Barwich turned to experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and perfumery in an effort to understand the mechanics and meaning of odors. She discovered that scents are often fickle, and do not line up with well-defined neural regions. Upending existing theories of perception, Smellosophy offers a new model for understanding how the brain senses and processes odors.
“A beguiling analysis of olfactory experience that is fast becoming a core reference work in the field.” —Irish Times
“Lively, authoritative…Aims to rehabilitate smell’s neglected and marginalized status.” —Wall Street Journal
“This is a special book…It teaches readers a lot about olfaction. It teaches us even more about what philosophy can be.” —Times Literary Supplement
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Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind
An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year
“Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion.” —Science
Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli “spark” neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. We think of the brain as a space we can map: here it responds to faces, there it perceives a sensation. But the sense of smell—only recently attracting broader attention in neuroscience—doesn’t work this way. So what does the nose tell the brain, and how does the brain understand it?
A. S. Barwich turned to experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and perfumery in an effort to understand the mechanics and meaning of odors. She discovered that scents are often fickle, and do not line up with well-defined neural regions. Upending existing theories of perception, Smellosophy offers a new model for understanding how the brain senses and processes odors.
“A beguiling analysis of olfactory experience that is fast becoming a core reference work in the field.” —Irish Times
“Lively, authoritative…Aims to rehabilitate smell’s neglected and marginalized status.” —Wall Street Journal
“This is a special book…It teaches readers a lot about olfaction. It teaches us even more about what philosophy can be.” —Times Literary Supplement
“Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion.” —Science
Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli “spark” neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. We think of the brain as a space we can map: here it responds to faces, there it perceives a sensation. But the sense of smell—only recently attracting broader attention in neuroscience—doesn’t work this way. So what does the nose tell the brain, and how does the brain understand it?
A. S. Barwich turned to experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and perfumery in an effort to understand the mechanics and meaning of odors. She discovered that scents are often fickle, and do not line up with well-defined neural regions. Upending existing theories of perception, Smellosophy offers a new model for understanding how the brain senses and processes odors.
“A beguiling analysis of olfactory experience that is fast becoming a core reference work in the field.” —Irish Times
“Lively, authoritative…Aims to rehabilitate smell’s neglected and marginalized status.” —Wall Street Journal
“This is a special book…It teaches readers a lot about olfaction. It teaches us even more about what philosophy can be.” —Times Literary Supplement
A. S. Barwich is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University Bloomington. She has been a Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience at Columbia University’s Center for Science and Society and has held a Research Fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Vienna. Her website is www.smellosophy.com.
Table of Contents
Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Preface�������������� Introduction: Nosedive����������������������������� 1. History of the Nose 2. Modern Olfaction: At the Crossroads 3. Minding the Nose: Odors in Cognition 4. How Behavior Senses Chemistry: The Affective Nature of Smell 5. On Air: From the Nose to the Brain 6. Molecules to Perception 7. Fingerprinting the Bulb 8. Beyond Mapping, to Measuring Smells 9. Perception as a Skill 10. The Distillate: The Nose as a Window into Mind and Brain Appendix: List of Interviewees������������������������������������� Notes������������ Acknowledgments Index
