On 21 November 2025, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, we held a symposium celebrating our former PhD student Mart Zakrzewska. The event, titled “The Psychology of Disease,” explored how illness shapes thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and social interactions. The programme featured talks on: Why some individuals react strongly to everyday sensory stimulation […]
The 2026 Olfactus Conference—a full day of talks and discussions led by Swedish olfactory and chemosensory researchers—will be hosted by Sci-Lab and the Division of Perception & Psychophysics. Planning is underway, and more information will be shared as it becomes available.
Recently our team published a new paper titled “Olfactory spatial memory: a systematic review and meta-analysis” in Scientific Reports. In the article, we summarized the current state of knowledge on olfactory spatial memory in humans. Four key results emerged: First, odors can be used as landmarks in the formation of neuro-cognitive maps in both sensory […]
Billy joins us, working as a research assistant to help with running Thomas Hörberg’s project: ”Building a cross-cultural semantic framework for odor vocabularies.” Billy has a PhD in psychology from Stockholm University, on the neural correlates of consciousness in hearing, using EEG.
A new paper from the lab has been published in Chemical Senses today. Free odor identification engages domain-general cognitive abilities in old adults, by Thomas Hörberg, Rohan Raj and Jonas Olofsson (et. al.) and investigates odor identification and cognitive aging. Find it here: https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjaf049
Today Riksbankens Jubileumsfond released accepted applications for their project grants. Both Malina Szychowska’s and Thomas Hörberg’s applications were accepted and will receive funding for the next three years. Malina Szychowska for the project: Sensory competition in spatial memory. Thomas Hörberg for the project: Building a cross-cultural semantic framework for odor vocabularies.
On Sunday, Jonas Olofsson and Håkan Fischer, professors of Psychology at Stockholm University, published an opinion article in the leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. They warn about the risks of the one-sided focus on natural sciences, technology and medicine in the Swedish government research strategy. They recommend harnessing insights from psychology, social sciences and humanities […]
Our now former PhD Candidate Stephen Pierzchajlo successfully defended his dissertation Smelling Without A Smell: How olfactory-perceptual representations are activated by words. Abstract: We spend every day using our senses to interact with the world. Though we use language as a way to understand the sensory world, language might have different roles for different senses. […]
This week SCI-Lab is attending the SweCog conference (7-9/10) in Lund. https://konferens.ht.lu.se/swecog-2025/. We will contribute 3 oral presentations, 1 poster presentation and 8 lab-members in attendance. We are looking forward to a great couple of days of interesting cognitive research and discussions!
The first Neuroimaging Methods Symposium (NEMES) is an event aiming to establish a network of neuroimaging experts across Swedish institutions. SCI-Lab made our presence with Malina Szychowska, William Fredborg and Teodor Jernsäther in attendance. The symposium featured talks from experts, neuroimaging workshops and focused discussions – with the collective aim to address key challenges, means […]