Spence C, McGlone F P, Kettenmann B, Kobal G
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Exp Brain Res. 2001 Jun;138(4):432-7. doi: 10.1007/s002210100713.
Olfaction is unique among the senses in that signals from the peripheral sensory receptors bypass the thalamus on their way to the cortex. The fact that olfactory stimuli are not gated by the thalamus has led some researchers to suggest that people may be unable to selectively direct their attention toward the olfactory modality. We examined this issue in an experiment where participants made speeded intensity (strong vs weak)-discrimination responses to an unpredictable sequence of olfactory and visual stimuli. Attention was directed to either olfaction or to vision by means of an informative cue that predicted the likely modality for the upcoming target on the majority of trials. Participants responded more rapidly when the target was presented in the expected rather than the unexpected modality, showing that people can selectively attend to olfaction.
嗅觉在各种感官中独具特色，因为来自外周感觉感受器的信号在通往皮层的途中会绕过丘脑。嗅觉刺激不受丘脑控制这一事实，使得一些研究人员认为，人们可能无法将注意力有选择地指向嗅觉模式。我们在一项实验中研究了这个问题，在该实验中，参与者对一系列不可预测的嗅觉和视觉刺激做出快速的强度（强与弱）辨别反应。通过一种提示信息，在大多数试验中预测即将出现的目标可能的模式，从而将注意力导向嗅觉或视觉。当目标以预期的而非意外的模式呈现时，参与者的反应更快，这表明人们能够有选择地关注嗅觉。
