Sniffing out the Brain’s Predictive Power: Human Brain ‘Smells’ What It Expects Rather Than What It Sniffs, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Study

In the moments before you “stop and smell the roses,” it’s likely your brain is already preparing your sensory system for that familiar floral smell. New research from Northwestern Medicine offers strong evidence that the brain uses predictive coding to generate “predictive templates” of specific smells -- setting up a mental expectation of a scent before it hits your nostrils.