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

Cognition in olfaction

Olfaction is to a large degree studied from the sensory processing perspective. Here we instead study the behavioral and neural implications of olfactory cognition. Using neural imaging and behavioral studies we will establish the limits of human olfactory cognition and the underlying neural mechanisms. How do we keep olfactory percepts temporarily in mind, and are we able reshape these percepts to aid behavior? Do we have similar attentional and top-down processing abilities in olfaction as in other sensory modalities? Are analogous brain areas involved in the cognitive processing of olfactory stimuli as in the more investigated visual cognition?

 

Early detection of parkinson’s disease

The olfactory bulb is where Parkinson’s Disease starts in the brain. Based on our new method to measure signal from the olfactory bulb, we are currently assessing whether the measure can be used as an early detector of Parkinson’s Disease onset. If successful, this would mean that we most probably can detect Parkinson’s Disease many years before the onset of the characteristic motor symptoms that is so characteristic for the disease. We are also currently exploring whether we can reverse the measure to stimulate the olfactory bulb and potentially slow the spread of the disease.

 

Human olfactory bulb processing

We recently demonstrated a new method to measure signals from the human olfactory bulb, an area of the human brain that that was not accessible without resorting to intracranial recordings. We are in this project, under the leadership of Dr. Johan Lundström, assessing what role the olfactory bulb has in human odor perception and action. Moreover, we are also assessing whether this measure might serve as an early indicator of Parkinson’s disease.

 

Links between breathing and performance

Respiration is one of the fundamental rhythms of life, with its effects stretching far beyond basic oxygenation. Recent studies have demonstrated that breathing modulates how we process basic perceptual stimuli and tentative evidence also indicate that breathing might regulate cognitive processes. In this project under the leadership of Dr. Artin Arshamian, we are assessing how this rhythmic activity, repeated 9-24 times each minute, shapes basic perception and cognition and what neural mechanisms allow this integration between breathing and perception/cognition.

 

Multisensory integration with odors

Outside the confined environment of the laboratory, smells are very rarely experienced by themselves, without the contextual information provided by our other senses. This project, under the leadership of Dr. Johan Lundström, is concerned with two fundamental perceptual neuroscience question: how is congruent information from our other sensory modalities influencing the processing of odors and what role does the olfactory cortex, if any, have in this?

 

Olfactory plasticity

The sense of smell is a sensory system that is characterized by both large inter- as well as intra- individual differences. The sense of smell is also very plastic where sensitivity towards individual odors can shift either rapidly or over time. Under the leadership of Dr. Lundström, the general aim of this project is to understand what the neural mechanisms, and their behavioral consequences, are that allow the sense of smell to adapt so fast to our environment. In doing this, we assess behavioral and neural measures in both healthy individuals as well as clinical populations with various etiology.

 

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
    How our perception works is well explored, and yet we do not understand how the human brain accomplishes the high degree of plasticity demonstrated by our perceptual systems. Here, we will determine the central mechanisms that regulate human perceptual plasticity. This basic question of sensory psychology has remained largely unanswered due to methodological hindrances, among which the unfeasibility of a within-person design stands out, when exploring plastic changes due to sensory loss or gain. Utilizing a unique patient population that undergoes cyclic periods of olfactory dysfunction due to nasal blockage, we will use a multimodal neuroimaging approach and determine what neural changes are linked to behavioral change in sensory functions. Specifically, we will combine a new electro-cortical measuring method, which allows us to assess functional connectivity with millisecond resolution, with that of classic magnetic resonance methods to assess mechanisms of perceptual plasticity at multiple levels of processing. The proposed studies will answer the basic questions of what central mechanisms govern perceptual plasticity as well as whether sensory gain and sensory loss are merely opposite sides of the same mechanistic coin.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
    More than half of all individuals with confirmed COVID-19 experience smell dysfunctions at some point during the disease. Critically, recent data show that for individuals who had mild to medium acute COVID symptoms, a reduced or distorted sense of smell is the most prevalent symptom (34%) eight months after serologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, few treatments exist for smell dysfunction, an affliction associated with a range of negative long-term health outcomes. A transdisciplinary research team including primary and secondary care clinics as well as basic scientists will in the proposed project address two overarching aims. First, we will determine the prevalence, symptomatology, and pathogenesis of post-COVID olfactory dysfunctions in a serologically highly controlled longitudinal cohort study. Second, we will assess the efficacy of three novel therapeutic treatments for two common post-COVID olfactory dysfunctions, hyposmia and parosmia. These online treatments are scalable and easily implemented in the primary care system at little cost for both patients and the health care system. If successful, the treatment for hyposmia will help many individuals regain their sense of smell. Likewise, the treatment for parosmia, which will be the first and only treatment available, will provide individuals with medium to severe parosmia some potential refuge from the often debilitating difficulty they experience when eating and interacting with odors in their life.
  • European Research Council
    1 June 2021 - 31 May 2026
    Working memory (WM) is a fundamental cognitive capability. It refers to our ability to hold, select and manipulate several objects in mind simultaneously. It allows us to engage in flexible behavior and is tightly linked to fluid intelligence. This project will answer an essential, yet unsolved aspect of WM: How can primates use their WM in a generalized way and control what they think about? If you hear apple, stone and pear in sequence, and then you are asked to imagine the first fruit, how is it that you do not confuse apples with pears? There are many competing models of WM, but no biologically detailed models are capable of generalization. Neural networks can be trained to perform similar WM tasks as primates do, a major difference is that primates generalize their training. They can learn the task on a set of objects, then perform it on a novel set. Computational models typically rely on changing the connections between units to achieve the desired activity patterns to solve the task. Since these activity patterns depend on the objects held in WM, the training does not translate to novel objects. I propose a new solution to this problem, the Hot-Coal model of WM. It relies on a novel computational principle in which spatial location of information, rather than connectivity, is controlled by excitatory bursts to support cognition. I will explore this principle and test it in data. Preliminary tests suggest that the Hot-Coal theory is supported by electrophysiological data from primates. By implementing the theory in computational networks I aim to demonstrate the generalization mechanism and provide more detailed predictions. Finally, I will use the theory to resolve seemingly conflicting findings regarding the mechanisms underlying WM, by reproducing them in a single model. The new theory could constitute a significant advance in the mechanistic understanding of one of the most central and puzzling components of cognition.
  • Wallenberg Academy Fellow – continuation grant
    Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
    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 och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
    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

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
Photo: Bildmakarna

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.

Keywords:
Anosmia Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Electroencephalography Functional Neuroimaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging Show all
Content reviewer:
Anja Winter
Andrea Aejmelaeus-Lindström
04-09-2025