ABSTRACT
The human sense of smell, in addition to supporting survival functions, plays a crucial role in guiding human behaviour in response to the pleasures and displeasures that accompany scents; behaviours ranging from selecting our meals to selecting our partners can be influenced by the perceived hedonic value of the associated odours. The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of neural basis of odour hedonic perception in humans. We begin the chapter with a summary of our current understanding of the human olfactory system, followed by a discussion on the factors that influence whether an odour will be perceived as pleasant or unpleasant. In the last section, we focus on the neural mechanisms that support odour hedonic perception. We conclude the chapter with a perspective on the challenges and advantages of studying odour hedonics.
