Olfacoustics

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Olfacoustics

exploring how semantics shape sensory integration

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About

Olfacoustics is an 18-month post-doctoral project funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) that aims to empirically investigate the semantic mediation hypothesis in auditory-olfactory correspondences.

This hypothesis proposes that associations between different sensory domains may be partly attributed to shared semantic properties. Auditory-olfactory correspondences constitute an intriguing ground for studying possible semantic mediation effects as their relationship is among the less explored in cross-modal research besides being considered as two of the most ineffable senses.

While olfactory and auditory semantics are often based on source-cause categories (‘sounds like a piano’, ‘smells like citrus’, etc.) there is evidence that they may also share some more abstract semantic dimensions such as ‘brightness’, ‘warmth’, ‘clarity’, or ‘richness’.

PI: Asteris Zacharakis

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Multisensory Playground

Explore olfactory correspondences with sounds by taking part in the quiz below

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About

Olfacoustics is a 1.5-year project funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) that aims to empirically investigate the semantic mediation hypothesis in auditory-olfactory correspondences. This hypothesis proposes that associations between different sensory domains may be partly attributed to shared semantic properties. Auditory-olfactory correspondences constitute an intriguing ground for studying possible semantic mediation effects as their relationship is among the less explored in cross-modal research besides being considered as two of the most ineffable senses. While olfactory and auditory semantics are often based on source-cause categories (‘sounds like a piano’, ‘smells like citrus’, etc.) there is evidence that they may also share some more abstract semantic dimensions such as ‘brightness’, ‘warmth’, ‘clarity’, or ‘richness’.

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Publications

Journals

Spence, C., Di Stefano, N., Reinoso-Carvalho, F., Mesz, B., & Zacharakis, A. (2026). ‘Play the fragrance’: Designing musical soundscapes to match fragrances based on olfactory-auditory crossmodal correspondences. i-Perception, 17(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695251409265

Zacharakis A. (2025). The poetry of senses: exploring semantic mediation in timbre-aroma correspondences, Frontiers in Psychology, 16, doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1520046

Zacharakis A. (2024). Sonic Bouquet: Decoding Cross-Modal Correspondences Between Timbre and Scent, Music & Science, 7, doi:10.1177/20592043241274258

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Dissemination

Upcoming events

• 6th Panhellenic Conference on Cognitive Psychology – Panteion University, 15–17 May 2026:
Presentation title: Semantic influence on auditory–olfactory correspondences: from the overall structure to individual semantic variables.

• 7th Experimental Scent Summit – ImpactHUB, Athens, 9 June 2026 :
Talk title: The Olfacoustics Project: Associations Between Sound and Scent.

• 4th International Conference on Timbre – University of Montreal, 2-4 July 2026:
Talk title: Crossmodal semantic priming between timbre and olfaction: does timbre activate semantic associations?

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Data

raw_data_poetry_of_senses

raw_data_sonic_bouquet

sound_stimuli_sonic_bouquet

radarplots_semantics

Funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) grant agreement 28975