Odor, Information and New Cosmetics—The Ripple Effect on Life by Aromachology Research

Extract

Sensation and the communication of information

In the animal world, there is an almost unimaginably wide variety of modes of communication mediated by a wide range of sensory systems. Mammals, for example, have five highly developed senses. However, not all senses are equally developed. In humans, the main senses used for communication are audition and vision. It is little wonder, then, that the main modes of human communication are language and facial expression. There seems to be a close correspondence between the development of forms of communication and sensory systems and thus forms of expression and modes of perception also appear to be closely related.

The tendency in humans to depend heavily, even disproportionately, on audition and vision probably provided the basis for human activities that culminated in the last century in the crowning technological achievements of modern civilization: the telephone, radio and television. The impact of these epoch-making inventions has been further extended in this century by the rapid and wide dissemination of the Internet. Despite continuing advances in telecommunications, the main sensory modes remain visual and/or auditory because telecommunications devices are limited technologically to reproducing shapes, colors and sounds: these devices have tremendous limitations when reproducing chemical stimuli.