It smells yellow to me. (Biology).

Does the color that a person sees influence what that person smells? Yes, according to a brain-imaging study recently conducted by Robert A. Osterbauer of the University of Oxford in England and his colleagues.

Using a noninvasive technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists viewed the brain activity of eight volunteers as they experienced various combinations of smells--lemon, strawberry, spearmint, or caramel-and colors--yellow, red, turquoise, or brown. When a color and smell matched expectations--yellow together with a lemon odor, for example--there was more activity in brain regions that process olfactory information than when the smell was given alone.

Compared with a smell by itself, mismatched information--such as a lemon odor and the color red--produced less brain activity in the olfactory regions. This imaging study, say the scientists, offers a neural explanation for past work that indicated that colors influence perception of smells. For example, adding red coloring to white wine can alter how a person perceives the beverage's odor.