Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25979848›Full record

ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2015

The muted sense: neurocognitive limitations of olfactory language.

Jonas K Olofsson, Jay A Gottfried

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
59citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

59 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
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  12. Article
  13. Past, Present, and Future of Human Chemical Communication Research.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025
    Review
  14. Article
  15. Observational
  16. Article
  17. Olfactory Categorization Is Shaped by a Transmodal Cortical Network for Evaluating Perceptual Predictions.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Jonas K OlofssonDepartment of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden; Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, SE-75238 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: jonas.olofsson@psychology.su.se.
Jay A GottfriedDepartment of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.

Funding

Perceptual Coding and Modulation of Odor Objects in the Human BrainR01DC010014 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI GOTTFRIED, JAY A · 2009 to 2018
$3.7M
Mapping and function of odorant receptors in the human olfactory systemR01DC014426 · NIDCD · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · PI BOZZA, THOMAS, GOTTFRIED, JAY A · 2015 to 2019
$3.2M
Spatiotemporal Mechanisms of Olfactory Processing in the Human BrainR01DC013243 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · PI GOTTFRIED, JAY A · 2013 to 2017
$1.5M
NIDCD NIH HHS 1R01DC010014NIDCD NIH HHS 1R01DC013243NIDCD NIH HHS 1R01DC014426NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC010014NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC013243NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC014426
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

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.

Indexed as

LanguageBrainHumansOlfactory PerceptionPattern Recognition, PhysiologicalSpeechlanguageolfactionperception

Identifiers

PMID25979848
PMCPMC4457599

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.