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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–4Cite as

Directional Smell

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Synonyms

Directional odor; Olfactory navigation; Oriented smell

Definition

The ability of humans to discriminate between odorous stimuli perceived either from the right or from the left side.

Introduction

Our sensory systems have developed in order to allow us to identify stimuli in the environment, evaluate them, and make sensible decisions about them (Kringelbach and Stein 2010). Olfaction is of great importance for food selection and reproduction (Porter et al. 2007). Olfactory sensory neurons can detect a large variety of odors and process the information by sending them through their axons to the olfactory bulb. The human perception of an odor is usually associated with pleasant or unpleasant emotions (Mori et al. 1999). The question that has been researched widely in the past decades is whether humans are able to define the direction of an odor, in other words, the ability to discriminate between odorous stimuli perceived either from the right or left side.

Kobal et al. (1989)...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Angela Lambrou-Louca

Authors
  1. Angela Lambrou-Louca
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angela Lambrou-Louca .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Menelaos Apostolou

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Lambrou-Louca, A. (2018). Directional Smell. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1018-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1018-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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