The Power of Odor Persuasion: The Incorporation of Olfactory Cues in Virtual Environments for Personalized Relaxation

Abstract

Olfaction is the most ancient sense and is directly connected with emotional areas in the brain. It gives rise to perception linked to emotion both in everyday life and in memory-recall activities. Despite its emotional primacy in perception and its role in sampling the real physical world, olfaction is rarely used in clinical psychological settings because it relies on stimuli that are difficult to deliver. However, recent developments in virtual-reality tools are creating novel possibilities for the engagement of the sense of smell in this field. In this article, we present the relevant features of olfaction for relaxation purposes and then discuss possible future applications of involving olfaction in virtual-reality interventions for relaxation. We also discuss clinical applications, the potential of new tools, and current obstacles and limitations.

Personalized Virtual Reality Compared With Guided Imagery for Enhancing the Impact of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Training: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Considering the impact of customization on anxiety and on engaging users in the virtual scenarios, another important aspect that needs to be considered is the opportunity to introduce customized stimuli based on the personal life experience of each participant in the virtual environment. As an example, introducing olfactory stimuli could be another essential aspect to enhance the sense of realism, immersion, and presence in the virtual scenarios [69,70]. A further limitation of this study is the possible exclusion of people who are not familiar with social media.…”

SafeVRwards: Designing a complementary virtual reality module to the Safewards framework intended to relax and manage conflict in mental health wards

“…VR technologies typically engage only two sensesvision and audition-limiting the user's virtual experience. 18 Recent research explores the impact of stimulating additional senses on feelings of presence, immersion, user engagement and overall VR experience. [19][20][21][22][23][24] Scents evoke experiences not solely influenced by cortical elaboration, 7 25 26 activating emotion-related contents or experiences almost automatically.…”

“…Their strong association with autobiographical memories allows personalisation of VR settings based on users’ past experiences and needs to enhance relaxation and positive emotional states. 18 Despite extensive evidence on how smell influences mood, stress and anxiety, 25–27 few VR applications and studies have explored olfactory stimulation to improve sensory experiences. 19 28 Notably, one study demonstrated that aversive and unpleasant scents, 19 or simultaneous stimulation of multiple senses (ie, hearing, touch, smell) in VR can heighten feelings of presence, improving outcomes in exposure therapy for specific phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.…”

A study on the effect of different channel cues on learning in immersive 360° videos

“… Cooper et al (2018) suggested that multisensory feedback cues effectively provide additional information to improve overall task performance and user-perceived presence. Pizzoli et al (2021) reported that olfactory cues can trigger distant memories, reduce the cognitive load required to re-evoke memories and experiences, and help learners relax. However, other studies have shown no significant effect of cues on cognitive load ( Albus et al, 2021 ) or posttest performance ( Hwang and Shin, 2018 ) for learning in virtual reality environments.…”