From blindsight to blindsmell: a mini review

Abstract

This mini-review briefly documents the phenomenon of blindsight and investigates evidence for a comparable state in olfaction. Blindsight evokes an appropriate response to a visual stimulus without any conscious visual experience or awareness of that event. For olfaction, we describe many routine aspects of perception that may occur without conscious awareness, arguably paralleling key aspects of blindsight. We then describe the limited neuropsychological evidence suggesting that people can apparently respond appropriately to odours that they cannot subjectively smell – what we would term “blindsmell”.

Keywords

• blindsight
• blindsmell
• awareness