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The case of conscious olfaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2026

Géraldine Coppin Open the ORCID record for Géraldine Coppin [Opens in a new window]
Géraldine Coppin*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, UniDistance Suisse, Schinerstrasse 18, Brig, Switzerland geraldine.coppin@unidisance.ch https://unidistance.ch/en/profile/geraldine-coppin Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus biotech, Chemin des mines 9, Geneva, Switzerland
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*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Fleming and Michel propose that conscious vision supports model-based planning, which they link to the water-to-land transition. However, the water-to-land transition may have impacted vision more than other sensory modalities. I argue that for human olfaction, which is tuned to implicit processing and high emotional salience, consciousness might often be considered as an add-on more than a necessity.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e173
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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