Sniffing out the brain's predictive power: Human brain smells what it expects rather than what it sniffs
Friday, October 7, 2011 - 16:30
in Psychology & Sociology
In the moments before you "stop and smell the roses," it's likely your brain is already preparing your sensory system for that familiar floral smell. New research offers strong evidence that the brain uses predictive coding to generate "predictive templates" of specific smells -- setting up a mental expectation of a scent before it hits your nostrils.