From blindsight to blindsmell: A mini review.

This mini-review briefly documents the phenomenon of blindsight – the condition where someone responds appropriately to a visual stimulus without any conscious visual experience or awareness of that event – and whether there is evidence for any comparable state in olfaction. For olfaction, we describe how many routine aspects of perception may occur without conscious awareness, arguably paralleling key aspects of blindsight. We then describe the limited neuropsychological evidence suggesting that people can apparently respond appropriately to odours that they cannot subjectively smell - blindsmell.