Our sense of smell is not pure, meaning it gets help from other senses, especially vision and hearing. Three experiments at Stockholm University Brain Imaging Center, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, show when the brain tries to identify odors it had not expected, both the visual and olfactory part of the brain are called to help. The study found the human sense of smell uses a unique brain strategy to process and understand unexpected smells. One of the experiments suggested expected smells and visuals led to quicker decisions. So, the nose may know what it knows, but shows getting a little help from other parts of the brain can make identifying smells both easier and faster.