Decoding the Human Brain Response to Odors

We are pleased to announce that Masako Okamoto from The University of Tokyo, Japan, will be presenting at the 9th World Congress on Digital Olfaction (DOS 2026) this December in Tokyo.

Odor perception is not simply determined by the physicochemical properties of odorants. Rather, it is shaped by semantic context, past experiences, and internal bodily states. Recent advances in machine learning have enabled us to decode information represented in human brain activity. In this talk, I will introduce our studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how odor-related information is represented and processed in the human brain. Our fMRI studies demonstrate that neural representations of odors in olfactory regions are influenced by verbal labels and that odor-specific information can be decoded even during odor imagery. Our EEG studies reveal the temporal dynamics of odor processing, showing that information about odorant properties emerges earlier than information related to subjective perception. Together, these findings provide insights into how the human brain transforms information about odorants into subjective odor experiences.