Smellosophy

What the Nose Tells the Mind

By: A.S. Barwich

Narrated by: Chloe Cannon

A pioneering exploration of olfaction that upsets settled notions of how the brain translates sensory information.

Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli "spark" neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. This has fostered a view of the brain as a space that we can map: here the brain responds to faces, there it perceives a sensation in your left hand. But it turns out that the sense of smell - only recently attracting broader attention in neuroscience - doesn't work this way. A. S. Barwich asks a deceptively simple question: What does the nose tell the brain, and how does the brain understand it?

Barwich interviews experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and perfumery in an effort to understand the biological mechanics and myriad meanings of odors. She argues that it is time to stop recycling ideas based on the paradigm of vision for the olfactory system. Scents are often fickle and boundless in comparison with visual images, and they do not line up with well-defined neural regions. Although olfaction remains a puzzle, Barwich proposes that what we know suggests the brain acts not only like a map, but also as a measuring device, one that senses and processes simple and complex odors.

©2020 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2020 Tantor

Does not accompany pdf document

This could have been a great audible book provided it provided a pdf downloads foral the key graphics and tables that are key to fully understand the scientific nature of this book. In my opinion it is just wrong not to have a pdf download for this book. Very disappointing.