Perception Neuroscience – Johan Lundström's research group

The Perception Neuroscience group conducts basic research aimed toward a better understanding of the neural and behavioral function of the olfactory system, and how it interacts with the other senses to interpret our environment in health and disease.

Part of the:

Psychological smell research

Non-invasive olfactory bulb measure

Research news

In the brain, bursts of beta rhythms implement cognitive control
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In the brain, bursts of beta rhythms implement cognitive control

Bursts of brain rhythms with “beta” frequencies control where and when neurons in the cortex process sensory information and plan responses. Studying these bursts would improve understanding of cognition and clinical disorders, researchers argue in a new review.

More from Perception Neuroscience Lab

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Research focus

Odor processing in the peripheral olfactory system

How does the human olfactory system build up a coherent odor percept, starting from receptor activation at the nasal epithelium to processing in the olfactory cortex? Addressing this question has long been constrained by the inaccessibility of the early olfactory stages in awake humans. We are developing methods to record simultaneously from the olfactory epithelium, olfactory bulb, and olfactory cortex, and we use these methods to track how odor information is transformed across the early olfactory hierarchy and how the stages interact. We further assess how environmental context and past experiences shape these processes, both in the short term and across longer timescales.

Working memory in the visual and olfactory system

Working memory is the short-term, limited-capacity store that allows reasoning, comprehension, and goal-directed behaviour. We study working memory across two sensory systems with very different representational structures. In the visual domain, we test the novel theory that the brain's ability to hold, manipulate, and generalize information across content domains depends on the spatial structure of cortex, with excitatory bursts controlling the location of information to support cognition. We pursue this through spatiotemporal analyses of brain activity, including oscillations and travelling waves, complemented by network simulations that probe the computational power of the theory. In the olfactory domain, we test whether odours can be actively maintained in the same way as visual or verbal information, and whether semantic grounding is required for genuine maintenance to occur. Combining behavioural and neural measures, we ask how working memory mechanisms generalize across modalities and where they diverge.

Links between breathing, perception and cognition

Respiration is one of the fundamental rhythms of life, with effects that extend well beyond basic oxygenation. A growing body of work has shown that breathing modulates the processing of basic perceptual stimuli, and tentative evidence indicates that breathing may also regulate higher-order cognitive processes. We aim to determine how this rhythmic activity, repeated 9–24 times each minute, shapes the neural processing of perceptual and cognitive information, and to identify the mechanisms that allow the respiratory signal to be integrated with sensory and cognitive systems across the brain.

Developmental trajectories of the olfactory system

The olfactory system follows a protracted developmental trajectory, with central olfactory regions continuing to mature well into childhood and adolescence. We are interested in how this trajectory unfolds in typical development across multiple levels, from genetic to neural processing, and in what goes wrong, and when, in conditions that affect olfactory function. Particular focus is given to schizophrenia and autism, where olfactory deficits are well documented but their developmental origins are poorly understood. We are also assessing other neurodevelopmental conditions, with the longer-term aim of using olfactory measures as accessible, early-life markers of atypical neural development.

Neural plasticity in the olfactory system

We investigate how the olfactory neural system changes when its input changes with the long-term goal of harnessing these findings clinically. One line of work examines how odor deprivation, ranging from months due to conductive problems to lifelong isolated congenital anosmia, reorganizes olfactory neural processing. A second line tests whether the same plastic mechanisms can be recruited to accelerate recovery in patients with acquired olfactory dysfunction. Combining healthy and clinical samples allows us to separate the consequences of input loss from the mechanisms that support recovery.

Clinical treatment of odor dysfunction

Olfactory dysfunctions such as hyposmia and parosmia carry substantial consequences for quality of life, yet effective treatments remain few. We are developing new therapeutic approaches and testing them in clinical populations. We also conduct comparative quality-of-life studies across patient groups, both to map the day-to-day burden of different forms of olfactory loss and to identify factors that predict who will respond well to treatment and who will not.

Working memory and generalization

In this project we study the primate ability to generalize. Working memory refers to our ability to temporarily hold a limited set of information in a particular online state that allows us to access and manipulate this information. Importantly, these abilities generalize to any information and not just information we previously trained to perform such manipulations on. We test the novel theory that these abilities, along with many other aspects of generalization, builds on utilizing the spatial structure of cortex. To test this we study spatiotemporal dynamics of brain activity, including brain oscillations and travelling waves. We also perform network simulations where we explore the computational power of this theory.

Publications

Selected publications

All publications from group members

Funding

Grants

  • Digitising Smell: From Natural Statistics of Olfactory Perceptual Space to Digital Transmission of Odors
    HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
    1 February 2024 - 31 January 2030
    This proposal is framed by a technological goal: We aim to digitize smell. Achieving this is currently prevented by gaps in basic science. We aim to fill these gaps, culminating in a proof of concept for our model. The primary gap we identify is lack of data on what humans typically smell. Phrased conceptually, in Aim 1 we ask what are the natural statistics of human olfactory perceptual space. We address this in a series of three experiments, highlighted by one where we equip participants with a wearable sampling apparatus we designed and built for this proposal. The apparatus measures sniffing behaviour to identify odor sampling, measures neural activity to verify olfactory perception, takes video of the visual scene, analyses total levels of volatile organic compounds in real time, and collects odor samples for detailed analysis off line. In other words, we generate an olfactory equivalent of Google Street View, with the addition of chemical, perceptual and neural data. Using this we will characterise the natural statistics of human olfactory perceptual space. Moreover, a major contribution of this proposal will be in posting this massive data as a publicly available recourse. Next, in Aim 2 we will use this data to digitize human olfactory perceptual space. We build on a model that allows us to recreate odors using a restricted set of odor primaries. We will test our model in two frameworks: One we call SmelloVision, where we develop the algorithmic framework to generate an odor to match any digital image, and one we call TelleSmell, where we develop a device to sense the environment, the algorithmic framework to transfer the data, and a device to generate the corresponding odor remotely. We provide pilot data for Aim 2 where we sensed an odor in Mainz (Germany), transmitted the data over IP to Rehovot (Israel), where we successfully recreated the smell. This was, as far as we know, the first transmission of odor over IP.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026
    The flexible control over the contents of our working memory (WM) frees us from reflexive behavior and supports central cognitive behaviors such as planning and language comprehension. WM capacity is strongly correlated with individual intelligence and it is one of the most studied aspects of human cognition. A major limitation of previous research on visually related WM is that it has typically required experimental subjects to not move their heads or gaze to create a tightly controlled environment. In everyday life, however, gaze position constantly changes as we walk around, turn our heads, and make eye-movements. The focus of this project is to start mapping the mechanisms that underlie WM processes in real-life, dynamic environments. We will conduct a series of behavioral and EEG experiments that utilize instructed eye-movements while subjects use their WM. This will allow us to determine the impact of gaze shifts while maintaining the experimental control of classical WM experiments. We will simultaneously record behavior, EEG, and gaze shifts to allow direct inference. The goal is to understand how WM representations are transformed following gaze shifts to account for the new frame of reference, and how this impacts behavior. This will ultimately provide us with fundamental insights on how we update contents of WM to serve future behavior. The project will therefore provide important insights into the workings of working memory in real life scenarios.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
  • European Research Council
    1 June 2021 - 31 May 2026
  • Wallenberg Academy Fellow – continuation grant
    Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2014
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2021
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2015 - 31 December 2017
  • Wallenberg Academy Fellow
    Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
    1 June 2013 - 31 May 2018
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
    1 January 2009 - 31 December 2012

Staff and contact

Group leader

All members of the group

Visiting address

Karolinska Institutet, Clinical Neuroscience / Division of Psychology, Nobels väg 9, Stockholm, 17177, Sweden

Postal address

Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience/Division of Psychology, Nobels väg 9, Stockholm, 17177, Sverige

Map

Alumni

Hannaneh Yazdi, PhD student

Zilan Öz, Master's student

Aurélie Hüsslage, Bachelor's student

Chaima Daki Erradi, Master's student

Grigorios Iakovidis, Research engineer

Arnika Pehl, Master’s student

Jonatan Nordmark, Postdoc

Anna-Laura Toth, Research assistant

Moa Peter, PhD student

Johannes Frasnelli, Guest professor

Laura Dukek, Master’s student

Marie Michaels, Master’s student

Behzad Iravani, PhD student

Putu Agus Khorisantono, Postdoc

Andri Savva, PhD Student

Janina Seubert, Senior Researcher

Kathi Prenner, Master’s Student

Andreas Westerdahl, Lab manager

Danja Porada, PhD student

Robin Fondberg, PhD student

Amy Gordon, PhD student

Cécilia Tremblay, PhD student

Milena Di Chira, Master’s Student

Christina Rossi, Master’s Student

Georgia Sarolidou, PhD student

Caitlin Hrysanidis, Master’s Student

Ida Siemens Lorenzen, Master’s Student

Daphnée Poupon, Master’s Student

Alessandro Davoli, Bachelor’s Student

Riccardo Bertaccini, Bachelor’s Student

Christina Schmitter, Bachelor’s Student

Alberto Frigieri, Bachelor’s Student

Barbara Feytl, Master’s Student

Harald Melin, Research assistant

Emilia Johansson, Research engineer

Belinda Miggitsch, Master’s Student

Mirella Engelhardt, Master’s Student

Sissie Carlsen, Master’s Student

Sidney Lind, Internship Student

Anna Belska, Visiting Student

Saskia Borg, Visiting Student

Teams

Team Arshamian
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Team Arshamian

The Embodied Perception and Cognition Group studies the olfactory system at the intersection of psychology, culture, neuroscience, and medicine. By leveraging the distinctive features of the sense of smell, we gain insights into how our embodied experiences influence perception and cognition.

Team Lundqvist
Photo: Johan Liljefors

Team Lundqvist

The Computational Cognition Group is interested in the neural mechanisms underlying cognition. We study how neural dynamics support abilities such as temporarily keeping things in mind, planning or prioritizing sensory information. We have a theory-based approach where we deploy neural network simulations to build predictions that we then test in experimental data from human and animal models.