Academic Work
College Textbooks
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Rachel Herz, PhD has been conducting research on olfaction, emotion, cognition since 1990. She has published over 95 original research papers, co-edited college textbooks, and received numerous grants and awards.
Since 2000 Dr. Herz has been on the faculty at Brown University and since 2013 she has also been teaching at Boston College. Among her major contributions are her studies showing how odor-evoked memory is emotionally unique compared to other memory experiences, how "aromatherapy" really works, and how emotional associations to odors can change perception and behavior. Her work also deals with how language can affect odor perception and the role that body-odor and fragrance play in heterosexual attraction. Rachel Herz also conducts research on the connections between taste sensitivity and emotional disgust, and how emotions and sensory information are involved in our experience of food and eating behavior.
Sample Research Publications:
The influence of circadian timing on odor detection- 2018. Chemical Senses, 43, 45-51. Herz, R.S., Van Reen, E., Barker, D., Hilditch, C., Bartz, A. & Carskadon, M.A.
The (non)-effect of induced emotion on desire for different types of foods-2017. Food Quality and Preference, 62, 214-17. Ershadi, M., Russell, J.A. & Herz, R.S.
The role of odor-evoked memory in psychological and physiological health- 2016. Brain Sciences, 6(3),22. Herz, R. S.
Birth of a Neurogastronomy Nation- 2016. Chemical Senses, 41, 101-103. Herz, R.S.
Verbal priming and taste sensitivity make moral transgressions gross-2014. Behavioral Neuroscience, 128, 20-28. Herz, R.S.