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 from Northwestern Medicine 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.
Predictive coding is important because it provides animals -- in this case, humans -- with a behavioral advantage, in that they can react more quickly and more accurately to stimuli in the surrounding environment.
The study, published in the Oct. 6 issue of the journal Neuron, was led by Christina Zelano, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jay Gottfried, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and attending physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The researchers used functional MRI techniques and cutting-edge, pattern-based analysis to identify the existence of predictive coding in the olfactory cortex of the brain, where the sense of smell is housed.
While it may not be obvious that predictive templates in the olfactory system give modern-day humans a behavioral advantage, Zelano said people often overlook the power of the sense of smell.
"If somebody hands you a bottle of milk and asks, 'Is this milk rotten?' there may not be any visual clues to help you accurately determine if the milk has spoiled, so you rely on your sense of smell," Zelano said. "Our study indicated that if your brain can successfully form a template of a rotten milk smell, then you would more accurately determine whether that milk is rotten and therefore you are less likely to get sick. These predictive templates can give us an important advantage."
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111007103308
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