Learning to name smells increases activity in heteromodal semantic areas
Résumé
Semantic description of odors is a cognitively demanding task. Learning to name smells is, however, possible with training. This study set out to examine how improvement in olfactory semantic knowledge following training reorganizes the neural representation of smells. First, 19 nonexpert volunteers were trained for 3 days; they were exposed (i) to odorants presented without verbal labels (perceptual learning) and (ii) to other odorants paired with lexicosemantic labels (associative learning). Second, the same participants were tested in a brain imaging study (fMRI) measuring hemodynamic responses to learned odors presented in both the perceptual and associative learning conditions. The lexicosemantic training enhanced the ability to describe smells semantically. Neurally, this change was associated with enhanced activity in a set of heteromodal areas—including superior frontal gyrus—and parietal areas. These findings demonstrate that odor‐name associative learning induces recruitment of brain areas involved in the integration and representation of semantic attributes of sensory events. They also offer new insights into the brain plasticity underlying the acquisition of olfactory expertise in lay people.