Before Olofsson started his research, he “viewed the sense of smell as a simple passive system” in which airborne molecules attach to mucosa in the nasal cavity, setting off a biological chain reaction that leads to a smell sensation in the brain. Now, he realises, “olfactory processes start not in the nose but in the brain, even before the odour molecules reach their destination. Olfactory processes are shaped by expectations and experiences.”

— The Financial Times, on the new book The Forgotten Sense: The New Science of Smell by Jonas Olofsson. Read more in The Forgotten Sense — why do we underestimate the power of smell?; hat tip to Kevin!

Florian Mormann, lead author on the study, told Salon in a video interview from Bonn that “the surprising finding to us was that we found cells that responded both to an odor and to the picture … of an object that is associated with the odor. For example, the smell of a banana, the picture of a banana and the written word ‘banana.’”

— Read more in In the brain, smell and sight are closer friends than we thought at Salon.