Olfactory and gustatory mental imagery : modulation by sensory experience and comparison to auditory mental imagery

Olfactory and gustatory mental images are defined as short-term memory representations of olfactory or gustatory events that give rise to the experience of "smelling with the mind's nose" or "tasting with the mind's tongue." This chapter reviews converging evidence supporting the view that, as with visual mental images, odor and taste mental images preserve some aspects of olfactory and gustatory percepts. The variability that affects both types of imagery is also considered in an experiment comparing the effect of experience on chemosensory mental imagery and auditory mental imagery.