Masako Okamoto The University of Tokyo Department of Applied Biological Chemistry Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Odorous molecules are present everywhere, and we are inhaling them every time we breathe. This odor information likely influences our mental status. However, what stimuli evoke these changes, what the dependence on context might be, and how our mental status changes are still unclear. In the current study, we plan to use naturalistic stimuli, e.g., movies and stories, the stimuli that are closer to those we encounter in our daily living compared to traditionally used, highly controlled stimuli. By comparing neural responses of human subjects to those stimuli presented with scene-matching odors, we examine when, how, and to what extent odors influence neural representations of semantics and emotions. In this way, we aim to improve our understanding of how odors influence our brain and mental states.