Response to Majid: Neurocognitive and Cultural Approaches to Odor Naming are Complementary.

Over the past few years, several studies have investigated the neural pathways and mechanisms underlying olfactory lexical processing. In a recent review, we provided a synthesis of behavioral and neuroimaging work pertaining to odorsource naming and identification, primarily in English speakers [1]. In a separate line of research, Dr Majid and colleagues have documented how odors are described among Maniq and Jahai speakers from the Malay peninsula. An important topic concerns whether the neural organization of language is causing the observed limitation in odor-source naming, or whether this phenomenon merely reflects a lack of priority to odors in our western culture. Thus, we welcome Dr Majid's commentary on this issue [2].