Prof Tim Jacob - PhD
Research Interests: Human Olfaction
The psychophysiology of smell. Thanks to Shaun Ali.
The psychophysiology of smell: how we smell, why we smell and what we smell.
We use evoked potential recording, threshold testing and physiological monitoring (e.g. skin resistance, heart rate etc).
Smell has an affective ability by virtue of conditioned associations. However, smell is first analysed by the brain along two dimensions; hedonicity and intensity. We are investigating the psychophysiological responses to pleasant and unpleasant smells and determining the implications this has for olfactory processing in the brain. Some responses seem to be hard-wired while others exhibit remarkable plasticity; we are investigating the extent to which the olfactory system can learn to smell and how it adapts to smell using EEG, psychometric tests and physiological monitoring.
Affiliated Staff
Simon O’Connor – PhD student
Hari Churunal (FRCS) – Consultant, Honorary Research Fellow
Nassima Boulkroune – Research Consultant, Liverpool University
Collaborators
Liwei Wang – Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
Lixin Chen - Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
Saied Sanei – School of Engineering, Cardiff University