Olfaction is the most ancient sense and is directly connected with emotional areas in the brain. It gives rise to perception linked to emotion both in everyday life and in memory-recall activities. Despite its emotional primacy in perception and its role in sampling the real physical world, olfaction is rarely used in clinical psychological settings because it relies on stimuli that are difficult to deliver. However, recent developments in virtual-reality tools are creating novel possibilities for the engagement of the sense of smell in this field. In this article, we present the relevant features of olfaction for relaxation purposes and then discuss possible future applications of involving olfaction in virtual-reality interventions for relaxation. We also discuss clinical applications, the potential of new tools, and current obstacles and limitations.

嗅觉是最古老的感觉，与大脑中的情绪区域直接相关。它会在日常生活和记忆回忆活动中产生与情绪相关的感知。尽管嗅觉在感知中具有情感首要地位，并且在对真实物理世界进行采样方面发挥作用，但嗅觉很少用于临床心理环境，因为它依赖于难以传递的刺激。然而，虚拟现实工具的最新发展为嗅觉在该领域的参与创造了新的可能性。在本文中，我们将介绍用于放松目的的嗅觉的相关特征，然后讨论将嗅觉用于放松的虚拟现实干预中可能的未来应用。我们还讨论了临床应用、新工具的潜力、