2025 Symposia


Eating with Feeling: Exploring Connections Between Emotions and Chemosensory Stimuli

  • Organizers: Kathryn Deibler, Xiaorong (Phoebe) Su, Casey Trimmer, Dan Wesson, Theresa White

Geraldine Coppin - UniDistance Suisse & Swiss Center for Affective Sciences
A multicomponential approach to emotional experiences: The case of relaxing and stimulating odors

John Prescott - TasteMatters Research & Consulting
Arousal and the modulation of food-related perceptions and emotions

Rachel Herz - Brown University
Exploring the Interplay Between Emotions and Chemosensory Stimuli: Past, Present and Future

Mansi Patney - Symrise AG


In Vivo Visualization of the Human Olfactory System

  • Chair: Eric Holbrook - Harvard Medical School

Eric Holbrook - Harvard Medical School
Utilizing Differential Expression of Cellular Enzymes to Visualize Olfactory Epithelium In Vivo.

Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt - Harvard Medical School
Imaging the Nasal and Olfactory Epithelium with in Vivo Microscopy

Kishore Pillarsetty - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Non-invasive fluorescence imaging of Nav1.7 as a diagnostic tool for Anosmia

Lu Xu - Columbia University
High-Speed Volumetric Imaging of the Olfactory System: from Periphery to Cortex

Emily Gibson - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Development of multiphoton endoscopy towards future clinical imaging of olfactory epithelium


Neuromodulation of Chemosensation

  • Chairs: Natale Sciolino - University of Connecticut & John Boughter - University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center Memphis

Mia Fox- University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center Memphis
Cholinergic Processing in Forebrain Circuits that Contribute to Taste-Related Learning

Will Fan - University of Connecticut
Locus Coeruleus Noradrenergic Modulation of Cortical Taste Processing

Alexandra DiFeliceantonio - Virginia Tech
Monoamine Dynamics in Response to Tastes in Humans

Max Loh - University of Illinois Chicago
Dopamine Differentially Encodes Sucrose Across the Acquisition and Extinction of a Conditioned Taste Aversion

Silvia Huerta Lopez - Harvard Medical School
A Thirst-Dependent Odor Spotlight


Non-Gustatory Orosensory Mechanisms That Dictate Whether to Eat or Not to Eat

  • Chairs: Snigdha Mukerjee - Vanderbilt University & Stephen Roper - University of Miami

Yalda Moayedi - New York University
Trigeminal Mechanosensory Mechanisms and Control of Feeding

Snigdha Mukerjee - Vanderbilt University
Trigeminal Circuits Dictate Innate Rejection Thresholds for Ethanol Through Oral Chemesthesis

Mariano Mastinu - Universitäklinikum Carl Gustav Car
Oral Trigeminal Perception of Astringency, Capsaicin, and Stereognosis: Exploring Individual Variability and Impact of Taste Dysfunction

John Hayes - Pennsylvania State University
Oral Burn and Ingestive Behavior in Humans

Earl Carstens - University of California, Davis
Neurobiology and Psychophysics of Oral Chemesthesis.


Odor Quality Prediction

  • Chairs: Jessica Brann - dsm-firmenich & Casey Trimmer - dsm-firmenich

Patrick Pfister - dsm-firmenich
Evidence for Elemental Olfactory Quality Encoding

Matthew Wachowiak - University of Utah
Do Neurons Matter? Using Neural Recordings of Odor Representations to Inform Predictive Models of Odor Quality

Emily Mayhew - Michigan State University
Predicting Human Olfactory Perception from Stimulus Chemistry

Doris Schicker - Sensory & Multisensory Systems Department of Sensory Analytics & Technologies (SAT) Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV
From Woody to Fruity: Leveraging Substructural Features for Odor Prediction of Mixtures

Thierry Thomas-Danguin - Centre for Smell, Taste, and Feeding Behavior, Dijon, France
Integrating Chemical, Sensory, and Expert Knowledge Data for Predicting Odor Profiles in Complex Mixtures


Presidential Symposium: Motorizing The Chemical Senses From The Whiskers, The Nose, and The Tongue

  • Chair: Alfredo Fontanini - Stony Brook University

Nicholas Hatsopoulos - University of Chicago

Mitra Hartmann - Northwestern University

Jesse Goldberg - Cornell University

Dan Wesson - University of Florida


Visceral and Sensory Signaling in Food Reward Valuation

  • Chairs: Janina Seubert - Karolinska Institutet & Geraldine Coppin - UniDistance Suisse & Swiss Center for Affective Sciences

Luis Tellez - Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico
Gustatory-Visceral Integration in Striatal Circuits

Androula Savva - Karolinska Institutet
Metabolic Modulation of Appetitive Odor Processing in Food Reward Valuation

Joost Maier - Wake Forest University
The Role of Source Reliability for Flavor Representation in Primary Gustatory Cortex

Surabhi Bhutani - San Diego State University
Impact of Sleep Patterns on Food Chemosensory Processing and Food Consumption

Catharine Winstanley - University of British Columbia
How Do Sensory Cues Affect Motivation?


Where the olfactory and reward system meet

  • Chairs: Wolfgang Kelsch - Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz and Heidelberg University & Sarah Sniffen - University of Florida College of Medicine

Minghong Ma - University of Pennsylvania
Potential Role of Islands of Calleja in Regulating Grooming and Depression-Like Behavior in Mice

Sarah Snffen - University of Florida College of Medicine
Directing Negative Emotional States Through Parallel Genetically-Distinct Basolateral Amygdala Pathways to the Tubular Striatum

Nathalie Mandairon - Lyon Neuroscience Research Center
Impact of Early Life Adversity on Hedonic Odor Perception: The Role of the Olfactory Tubercle

Max Scheller - Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz
Olfactory Prediction Learning Via Mesolimbic Coordination

Venkatesh Murthy - Harvard University
Stability and Flexibility of Neural Representations in The Olfactory Tubercle