Olfactory language and abstraction across cultures

"What is this?": Multisensorial explorations of food with and without sight

The relationship between sensorial experiences and language during food consumption has been investigated in a diversity of settings and activities, showing a variety of sensorial practices and possible ways of discursively expressing them. In this paper, we focus specifically on activities where individuals encounter unfamiliar food, suspending expected synaesthetic associations between sensory features. Using audio and video recordings of dinner interactions in restaurants offering high-end creative cuisine and dining experiences in complete darkness, we show how the participants move from eating to tasting and engage in a multisensorial exploration of the food, where sight is either absent or insufficient to solve the puzzle of what it is they are eating. We find that this exploration commonly begins with a recurring interactional practice: the question "what is this?", initiating a sequence that reveals a public collective engagement with the food among participants. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, we investigate the sequential environments in which "what is this?" prototypically occurs, the various actions it implements, its turn design (displaying a more or less unknowing stance), as well as how it is subsequently responded to within the participants' project of identifying the food. We examine how the "what is this?" inquiry mobilizes various linguistic resources, in a way that is deeply embedded in multisensorial examinations of the food that are (made) available to co-participants, publicly seeable in high-end gastronomic restaurants, and publicly hearable in dark restaurants. Our findings contribute to naturalistic interactional research on commensality and multisensoriality, with particular relevance for scholarship addressing the primacy and limitations of sight.

Nature and human well-being: The olfactory pathway

The world is undergoing massive atmospheric and ecological change, driving unprecedented challenges to human well-being. Olfaction is a key sensory system through which these impacts occur. The sense of smell influences quality of and satisfaction with life, emotion, emotion regulation, cognitive function, social interactions, dietary choices, stress, and depressive symptoms. Exposures via the olfactory pathway can also lead to (anti-)inflammatory outcomes. Increased understanding is needed regarding the ways in which odorants generated by nature (i.e., natural olfactory environments) affect human well-being. With perspectives from a range of health, social, and natural sciences, we provide an overview of this unique sensory system, four consensus statements regarding olfaction and the environment, and a conceptual framework that integrates the olfactory pathway into an understanding of the effects of natural environments on human well-being. We then discuss how this framework can contribute to better accounting of the impacts of policy and land-use decision-making on natural olfactory environments and, in turn, on planetary health.

Grounded Cognition, Linguistic Relativity, and Abstract Concepts

Kemmerer's paper convincingly claims that the grounded cognition model (GCM) entails linguistic relativity. Here, we underline that tackling linguistic relativity and cultural differences is vital for GCM. First, it allows GCM to focus more on flexible rather than stable aspects of cognition. Second, it highlights the centrality of linguistic experience for human cognition. While GCM-inspired research underscored the similarity between linguistic and nonlinguistic concepts, it is now paramount to understand when and how language(s) influence knowledge. To this aim, we argue that linguistic variation might be particularly relevant for more abstract concepts-which are more debatable and open to revisions.

Language is a Source of Grounding and a Mode of Action

Kemmerer argues that grounded cognition explains how language-specific semantic structures can influence nonlinguistic cognition. In this commentary, I argue that his proposal fails to fully consider the possibility that language itself can serve as a source of grounding. Our concepts are not merely shaped by a disembodied language system; they emerge in the context of linguistic experience and action. This inclusive approach to grounded cognition offers an expanded conception of the phenomena associated with linguistic relativity. I provide empirical and theoretical reasons to adopt this theoretical perspective.

A cross-cultural study of language and cognition: Numeral classifiers and solid object categorization

One of the central issues in cognition is identifying universal and culturally specific patterns of thought. In this study, we examined how one aspect of culture, a linguistic part of speech known asclassifiers, are related to categorization of solid objects. In Experiment 1, we used a numeral classifier elicitation task to examine the classifiers used by speakers of Hmong, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese (N = 34) with 135 nouns that referred to solid objects. In Experiment 2, adult speakers of English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Hmong (N = 64) rated the similarity of 39 pictured objects that depicted a subset of the nouns. All groups classified the objects into natural kinds and artifacts, with the category of humans anchoring both divisions. The main difference that emerged from the study was that speakers of Japanese and English rated humans and animals as more similar to each other than Hmong speakers; Mandarin speakers' ratings of the similarity between humans and animals fell in between those of Hmong and English speakers. However, the pattern of categorization of humans and animals found among speakers of the classifier languages contradicted their patterns of classifier use. The findings help to tease apart the effects of language from other cultural factors that impact cognition.

Children's Olfactory Picturebooks: Charting New Trends in Early Childhood Education

Converging global trends (digitization, globalization, datafication) have influenced all aspects of children's literacies, including children's picturebooks. The recent turn towards embodied, affective and sensory literacies, stimulated our interest in multisensory picturebooks that engage all children's senses, including the sense of smell (olfaction). Olfactory children's picturebooks demand new forms of literary conversations, which capitalise on unique properties of odours and integrate these with stories. Drawing on a systematic search of children's picturebooks about, and with, smell, in paper-based and digital formats, we identified three principal ways in which olfaction is currently embedded in children's picturebooks: 1, as an add-on to depiction of objects (including foods, plants) and places, 2, as a device to introduce humour into a story, and 3, as an engagement tool for children's active participation in the story. We mobilise Sipe's (2008) concept of seven constituting elements in children's picturebooks to describe how current olfactory picturebooks apply the elements in their design and make recommendations for future development of children's olfactory picturebooks. Reflecting on the generative potential of literary theories and olfactory power to stimulate children's non-linguistic embodied interactions with picturebooks, we propose some extensions to the current olfactory picturebook landscape.

Olfactory abstraction: a communicative and metacognitive account

The usual puzzle raised about olfaction is that of a deficit of abstraction: smells, by contrast notably with colours, do not easily lend themselves to abstract categories and labels. Some studies have argued that the puzzle is culturally restricted and that abstraction is more common outside urban Western societies. Here, I argue that the puzzle is misconstrued and should be reversed: given that odours are constantly changing and that their commonalities are difficult for humans to identify, what is surprising is not that abstract terms are rare, but that they should be used at all for olfaction. Given the nature of the olfactory environment and our cognitive equipment, concrete labels referring to sources seem most adaptive. To explain the use and presence of abstract terms, we need to examine their social and communicative benefits. Here these benefits are spelt out as securing a higher agreement among individuals varying in their olfactory experiences as well as the labels they use, as well as feeling a heightened sense of confidence in one's naming capacities. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

Odor descriptive ratings can predict some odor-color associations in different color features of hue or lightness

Background

Olfactory information can be associated with color information. Researchers have investigated the role of descriptive ratings of odors on odor-color associations. Research into these associations should also focus on the differences in odor types. We aimed to identify the odor descriptive ratings that can predict odor-color corresponding formation, and predict features of the associated colors from the ratings taking into consideration the differences in the odor types.

Methods

We assessed 13 types of odors and their associated colors in participants with a Japanese cultural background. The associated colors from odors in the CIE L*a*b* space were subjectively evaluated to prevent the priming effect from selecting color patches. We analyzed the data using Bayesian multilevel modeling, which included the random effects of each odor, for investigating the effect of descriptive ratings on associated colors. We investigated the effects of five descriptive ratings, namely Edibility, Arousal, Familiarity, Pleasantness, and Strength on the associated colors.

Results

The Bayesian multilevel model indicated that the odor description of Edibility was related to the reddish hues of associated colors in three odors. Edibility was related to the yellow hues of colors in the remaining five odors. The Arousal description was related to the yellowish hues in two odors. The Strength of the tested odors was generally related to the color lightness. The present analysis could contribute in investigating the influence of the olfactory descriptive rating that anticipates the associated color for each odor.

Self-reported symptom study of COVID-19 chemosensory dysfunction in Malaysia

Alterations in the three chemosensory modalities-smell, taste, and chemesthesis-have been implicated in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), yet emerging data suggest a wide geographic and ethnic variation in the prevalence of these symptoms. Studies on chemosensory disorders in COVID-19 have predominantly focused on Caucasian populations whereas Asians remain understudied. We conducted a nationwide, multicentre cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire on a cohort of RT-PCR-confirmed adult COVID-19 patients in Malaysia between 6 June and 30 November 2020. The aim of our study was to investigate their presenting symptoms and assess their chemosensory function using self-ratings of perceived smell, taste, chemesthesis, and nasal blockage. In this cohort of 498 patients, 41.4% reported smell and/or taste loss when diagnosed with COVID-19, which was the commonest symptom. Blocked nose, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal disturbances were independent predictors of smell and/or taste loss on multivariate analysis. Self-ratings of chemosensory function revealed a reduction in smell, taste, and chemesthesis across the entire cohort of patients that was more profound among those reporting smell and/or taste loss as their presenting symptom. Perceived nasal obstruction accounted for only a small proportion of changes in smell and taste, but not for chemesthesis, supporting viral disruption of sensorineural mechanisms as the dominant aetiology of chemosensory dysfunction. Our study suggests that chemosensory dysfunction in COVID-19 is more widespread than previously reported among Asians and may be related to the infectivity of viral strains.Study Registration: NMRR-20-934-54803 and NCT04390165.

Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors

A recent body of research has emerged regarding the interactions between olfaction and other sensory channels to process social information. The current review examines the influence of body odors on face perception, a core component of human social cognition. First, we review studies reporting how body odors interact with the perception of invariant facial information (i.e., identity, sex, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and dominance). Although we mainly focus on the influence of body odors based on axillary odor, we also review findings about specific steroids present in axillary sweat (i.e., androstenone, androstenol, androstadienone, and estratetraenol). We next survey the literature showing body odor influences on the perception of transient face properties, notably in discussing the role of body odors in facilitating or hindering the perception of emotional facial expression, in relation to competing frameworks of emotions. Finally, we discuss the developmental origins of these olfaction-to-vision influences, as an emerging literature indicates that odor cues strongly influence face perception in infants. Body odors with a high social relevance such as the odor emanating from the mother have a widespread influence on various aspects of face perception in infancy, including categorization of faces among other objects, face scanning behavior, or facial expression perception. We conclude by suggesting that the weight of olfaction might be especially strong in infancy, shaping social perception, especially in slow-maturing senses such as vision, and that this early tutoring function of olfaction spans all developmental stages to disambiguate a complex social environment by conveying key information for social interactions until adulthood.

What we talk about when we talk about colors

Do we talk about some colors more often than others? And do the colors we communicate about most frequently vary across cultures? A classic finding shows that languages around the world partition colors into words in remarkably similar, although not identical, ways. The biology of human color perception helps explain similar color vocabularies across languages, but less is known about how often speakers need to reference different colors. The inference method we develop reveals extensive variation in communicative needs across colors, and a diversity in needs across 130 languages, which helps explain variation in their color vocabularies. Our results open the door to studying cross-cultural variation in demands on different colors, and factors that drive color demands in linguistic communities.

Names for colors vary widely across languages, but color categories are remarkably consistent. Shared mechanisms of color perception help explain consistent partitions of visible light into discrete color vocabularies. But the mappings from colors to words are not identical across languages, which may reflect communicative needs—how often speakers must refer to objects of different color. Here we quantify the communicative needs of colors in 130 different languages by developing an inference algorithm for this problem. We find that communicative needs are not uniform: Some regions of color space exhibit 30-fold greater demand for communication than other regions. The regions of greatest demand correlate with the colors of salient objects, including ripe fruits in primate diets. Our analysis also reveals a hidden diversity in the communicative needs of colors across different languages, which is partly explained by differences in geographic location and the local biogeography of linguistic communities. Accounting for language-specific, nonuniform communicative needs improves predictions for how a language maps colors to words, and how these mappings vary across languages. Our account closes an important gap in the compression theory of color naming, while opening directions to study cross-cultural variation in the need to communicate different colors and its impact on the cultural evolution of color categories.

Consequences of Sensory Modality for Perspective-Taking: Comparing Visual, Olfactory and Gustatory Perception

Perspective-taking is fundamental for language comprehension, including the interpretation of subjective adjectives (e.g., fun, tasty, and amazing). To understand these adjectives, one needs to know whose opinion is being conveyed—in other words, who is the attitude-holder or perspectival center. Although the perspective-sensitivity of subjective adjectives has received considerable attention in prior work in formal semantics, potential effects of sensory modality (e.g., sight, taste, and smell) on the process of attitude-holder identification have not been systematically investigated. This paper reports a series of studies testing whether interpretation of subjective adjectives depends on whether they refer to the visual, olfactory (smell) vs. gustatory (taste) domains. The results provide evidence that sensory modality has a significant impact on the process of identifying the attitude-holder. This outcome suggests that perspective-sensitivity is highly context-dependent, and the observed modality effects align well with the biological and social properties of sight, taste, and smell.

Olfactory dysfunction in aging and neurodegenerative diseases

Alterations in olfactory functions are proposed to be early biomarkers for neurodegeneration. Many neurodegenerative diseases are age-related, including two of the most common, Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The establishment of biomarkers that promote early risk identification is critical for the implementation of early treatment to postpone or avert pathological development. Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is seen in 90% of early-stage PD patients and 85% of patients with early-stage AD, which makes it an attractive biomarker for early diagnosis of these diseases. Here, we systematically review widely applied smelling tests available for humans as well as olfaction assessments performed in some animal models and the relationships between OD and normal aging, PD, AD, and other conditions. The utility of OD as a biomarker for neurodegenerative disease diagnosis and future research directions are also discussed.

The Sound of Smell: Associating Odor Valence With Disgust Sounds

Olfaction has recently been highlighted as a sense poorly connected with language. Odor is difficult to verbalize, and it has few qualities that afford mimicry by vision or sound. At the same time, emotion is thought to be the most salient dimension of an odor, and it could therefore be an olfactory dimension more easily communicated. We investigated whether sounds imitative of an innate disgust response can be associated with unpleasant odors. In two experiments, participants were asked to make a forced choice between a pseudoword including a disgust sound and a neutral pseudoword, for pleasant and unpleasant odors. Overall, participants chose more disgust pseudowords than neutral pseudowords for unpleasant odors, but this was not the case for pleasant odors. This effect was not driven by a general association between unpleasant sounds and unpleasant odors, but specifically the sounds [x/χ] and [f], thought to reflect physical responses to disgusting odors, as seen in the Polish fu! or the English ugh!. In line with growing evidence that language can encode odor, we provide the first experimental evidence for an association between the sound of a word and odor valence.

A Review of the Effects of Valenced Odors on Face Perception and Evaluation

How do valenced odors affect the perception and evaluation of facial expressions? We reviewed 25 studies published from 1989 to 2020 on cross-modal behavioral effects of odors on the perception of faces. The results indicate that odors may influence facial evaluations and classifications in several ways. Faces are rated as more arousing during simultaneous odor exposure, and the rated valence of faces is affected in the direction of the odor valence. For facial classification tasks, in general, valenced odors, whether pleasant or unpleasant, decrease facial emotion classification speed. The evidence for valence congruency effects was inconsistent. Some studies found that exposure to a valenced odor facilitates the processing of a similarly valenced facial expression. The results for facial evaluation were mirrored in classical conditioning studies, as faces conditioned with valenced odors were rated in the direction of the odor valence. However, the evidence of odor effects was inconsistent when the task was to classify faces. Furthermore, using a z-curve analysis, we found clear evidence for publication bias. Our recommendations for future research include greater consideration of individual differences in sensation and cognition, individual differences (e.g., differences in odor sensitivity related to age, gender, or culture), establishing standardized experimental assessments and stimuli, larger study samples, and embracing open research practices.

Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology

The human sense of smell can accomplish astonishing feats, yet there remains a prevailing belief that olfactory language is deficient. Numerous studies with English speakers support this view: there are few terms for odors, odor talk is infrequent, and naming odors is difficult. However, this is not true across the world. Many languages have sizeable smell lexicons - smell is even grammaticalized. In addition, for some cultures smell talk is more frequent and odor naming easier. This linguistic variation is as yet unexplained but could be the result of ecological, cultural, or genetic factors or a combination thereof. Different ways of talking about smells may shape aspects of olfactory cognition too. Critically, this variation sheds new light on this important sensory modality.

Affective and Semantic Representations of Valence: A Conceptual Framework

The current article discusses the distinction between affective valence—the degree to which an affective response represents pleasure or displeasure—and semantic valence, the degree to which an object or event is considered positive or negative. To date, measures that reflect positivity and negativity are usually placed under the same conceptual umbrella (e.g., valence, affective, emotional), with minimal distinction between the modes of valence they reflect. Recent work suggests that what might seem to reflect a monolithic structure of valence has at least two different, confounding underlying sources, affective and semantic, that are fundamentally distinct, dissociable, and that obey different, recognizable rules. The current work discusses this distinction and provides implications for affective science from both the theoretical and the empirical perspective.

Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain

The capacity for abstract thought is one of the hallmarks of human cognition. However, the mechanisms underlying the ability to form and use abstract concepts like 'fantasy' and 'grace' have not been elucidated yet. This theme issue brings together developmental, social and cognitive psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, philosophers and computer scientists to present theoretical insights and novel evidence on how abstract concepts are acquired, used and represented in the brain. Many of the contributions conceive concepts as grounded in sensorimotor systems and constrained by bodily mechanisms and structures. The theme issue develops along two main axes, related to the most promising research directions on abstract concepts. The axes focus on (i) the different kinds of abstract concepts (numbers, emotions, evaluative concepts like moral and aesthetic ones, social concepts); (ii) the role played by perception and action, language and sociality, and inner processes (emotions, interoception, metacognition) in grounding abstract concepts. Most papers adopt a cognitive science/neuroscience approach, but the theme issue also includes studies on development, on social cognition, and on how linguistic diversity shapes abstract concepts. Overall, the theme issue provides an integrated theoretical account that highlights the importance of language, sociality and inner processes for abstract concepts, and that offers new methodological tools to investigate them.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.