Sniffing out the brain’s predictive power: Human brain ‘smells’ what it expects rather than what it sniffs
So many jokes, so little space.
Science • October 2011 • Views: 953
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.