Influence of pre-exposure and cognitive task on the perception of odor blending mixtures in humans

Perception of a blending odor mixture: an fMRI study in humans

Supported by grants from the Burgundy Regional council and EU-ERDF, European Dijon-Dresden Laboratory (LEA 549); Odors we perceive from our environment arise from the processing of mixtures of odorants. Some mixtures can lead to configural or elemental perception depending, in part, on experience. However, the neural bases of such influences are still unknown. In the present study, we examined the neurophysiological correlates of the configural and elemental processing of a binary odor mixture (AB). This AB mixture has previously been shown to blend into one percept, but also to produce a more or less configural perception depending on pre-exposure to either the mixture itself or to the sin…

Dumping effects measured in cream cakes: influence of response alternatives

Sensory panellists are often asked to make intensity judgments for a sensory attribute of a stimulus. However, it is well known that a multidimensional stimulus entails this judgment, and could lead to a carryover effect of the intensity of sensations as a function of the number of available attributes. This phenomenon has been called the “dumping” effect and could especially appear as a methodological issue in cross-modal interactions studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the number of attributes on the rating of a target attribute (saltiness) of several variants of a food-product and to assess the extent to which dumping affect judgment between variants. Nine …

Does the learning of elements prevent configural odor mixture perception in the newborn rabbit?

Does the learning of elements prevent configural odor mixture perception in the newborn rabbit?. 36. annual meeting - association for chemoreception sciences (Achems)

Impact of proportion on configural perception of odor mixtures in a newborn mammal

International audience; Configural perception of odor mixtures appears functional early in life. Recent results underline that after the learning of a binary mixture. (AB) that blends in humans, newborn rabbits respond both to the mixture and to its components. However, after the learning of. a single component they do not generalize to the mixture. This suggests that they perceive more in the mixture than the odor of each. constituent (Coureaud et al., Physiol. Behav. 2008). Here, we pursued the assessment of their configural perception of AB, with the. aim to determine whether specific component proportions of A and B elicit the perceptual emergence of an additional odor in AB. Starting. …

Impact of complexity on the processing of odour mixture in newborn rabbits

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Persistence in memory of configural odor mixture and components in the newborn rabbit

Persistence in memory of configural odor mixture and components in the newborn rabbit. 36. annual meeting - association for chemoreception sciences (AChemS XXXVI)

Slight variations in components ratio affect odor pleasantness of a blending mixture

International audience; Odors rely mainly on the perception of odorants mixtures but are commonly perceived as single undivided entities; nevertheless, the processes involved remain poorly explored. It has been reported that perceptual blending, based on configural olfactory processing, can lead odorant mixtures to give rise to an emergent odor quality not present in the components. Furthermore, very slight variations (just noticeable differences, jnd) in components concentrations were shown to be sufficient to modify the odor quality of a blending mixture. In the present study, we set out to examine whether jnd in components concentrations could also affect the odor pleasantness of a blend…

Response to all after conditioning to parts of the whole: a case of configural perception in the newborn rabbit

Coming from flowers, foods or conspecifics, odours are ubiquitous in our environment. Most of the time, perceived odours are the result of complex relationships between tens or more of odorants with our olfactory system. Two perceptual strategies are potentially engaged to perceive such chemically complex mixtures. The elemental mode allows the perception of each component's quality. Conversely, the configural mode supports the perception of a new odour in addition to, or in place of, the odours of the components (blending effect). In humans, it is usually considered that the prevalence of one mode on the other is due, in part, to mixture complexity. In the rabbit, previous results have sho…

Pharmacophore study of a blending six-component odor mixture

The first step of odor perception is an interaction between odorants and olfactory receptors [1]. The corresponding transduced olfactory signals, conveyed by olfactory sensory neurons, are then processed by the brain [2]. It is now accepted that the main strategy used to discriminate thousands of odors results from a combinatorial coding [3]. Moreover, odors perceived in our environment are mainly the result of mixtures of odorants; however, the specific mechanisms involved in their processing remain poorly understood [4]. In previous studies performed in the CSGA of Dijon [5-7], we investigated the perception of a mixture of 6 components: vanillin, oxanone (4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)butan-2-one),…