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Sabiniewicz A, Sorokowska A, Palmiero M, Nicotra M, Sorokowski P. Gender differences in the relationship between neuroticism and odor memory. Physiol Behav 2024; 276:114475. [PMID: 38278502 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 01/28/2024]
Abstract
Given the indications on the relationship between neuroticism and various olfactory functions as well as the emotionality of odor memory, it is surprising that no research so far has investigated whether neuroticism corresponds with odor memory performance. Thus, the purpose of our study was to address this question in the context of gender differences. Participants (73 men) completed the 60-items NEO Five Factor Inventory and participated in 32-items "Test for odor memory". In the separate analyses conducted for men and women, we demonstrated that women outperformed men regarding the number of correct odor recognitions in the odor memory test and had higher neuroticism level than men. Spearman correlation showed further that neuroticism was positively associated with D-prime (R = 0.3, p = .021) and the number of correct odor recognitions in women (R = 0.32, p = .014). This effect was, respectively, moderately (B10 = 5.2) and strongly confirmed using the Bayesian approach (B10 = 8). However, Bonferroni post-hoc correction for multiple comparisons further revealed that in case of neuroticism and the number of hits, as well as D-prime, alpha level was below significance, indicated by p = .006. The correlation between neuroticism level and odor memory performance was significantly higher in women compared to men (Z = 1.8, p = .038), while in case of neuroticism and D-prime, it was on a trend level (Z = 1.5, p = .074). Overall, the present results indicate that neuroticism might be linked to conscious odors' remembering for women, which can be explained by the warning role of odor memory and its connection to limbic structures, as well as by the higher level of neuroticism and odor memory performance in women compared to men.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Sabiniewicz
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland; Interdisciplinary Center "Smell & Taste", Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
| | - Agnieszka Sorokowska
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland; Interdisciplinary Center "Smell & Taste", Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | | | - Michele Nicotra
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
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2
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Zhang B, Li X, Deng H, Tan P, He W, Huang S, Wang L, Xu H, Cao L, Nie G. The relationship of personality, alexithymia, anxiety symptoms, and odor awareness: a mediation analysis. BMC Psychiatry 2024; 24:185. [PMID: 38448836 PMCID: PMC10916267 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-024-05653-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Personality, emotions, and olfaction exhibit partial anatomical overlap in the limbic system structure, establishing potential mechanisms between personality, affective disorders, and olfactory-related aspects. Thus, this study aims to investigate the associations among the Big Five personality traits, alexithymia, anxiety symptoms, and odor awareness. METHODS A total of 863 college participants were recruited for this study. All participants completed the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory-15, the Odor Awareness Scale (OAS), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener-7. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the hypothesized mediated model. RESULTS The findings revealed the majority of significant intercorrelations among the dimensions of the Big Five personality traits, alexithymia, anxiety symptoms, and OAS (|r| = 0.072-0.567, p < 0.05). Alexithymia and anxiety symptoms exhibited a serial mediation effect between neuroticism and OAS (95%CI[0.001, 0.014]), conscientiousness and OAS (95%CI[-0.008, -0.001]), and extraversion and OAS (95%CI[-0.006, -0.001]). Anxiety symptoms mediated the relationship between agreeableness and OAS (95%CI[-0.023, -0.001]) and between openness and OAS (95%CI [0.004, 0.024]). CONCLUSION The mediating roles of alexithymia and anxiety symptoms between the Big Five personality traits and odor awareness support the idea of a certain level of association among personality, emotions, and olfaction, with the underlying role of the limbic system structure. This enhances our understanding of personality, emotions, and olfaction and provides insights for future intervention measures for affective disorders and olfactory dysfunctions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binfeng Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Xiuxia Li
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Hongzhen Deng
- School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Peixuan Tan
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Wanyong He
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Shuling Huang
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Lu Wang
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Hao Xu
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Lei Cao
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
| | - Guanghui Nie
- Department of Psychology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
- School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Shuangyong Road 22, 530021, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
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3
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Cecchetto C, Dal Bò E, Aiello M, Fischmeister FPS, Gentili C, Osimo SA. Alexithymia modulates the attitudes towards odors but not the olfactory abilities or the affective reactions to odors. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0278496. [PMID: 37279254 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Although emotion and olfaction are closely linked, only a few studies have investigated olfactory processing in alexithymia, a condition characterized by altered emotional processing. These results do not allow comprehensive conclusions on whether individuals with alexithymia present lower olfactory abilities or only altered affective reactions and awareness of odors. Three pre-registered experiments were conducted to clarify this relation. We assessed olfactory functions, the affective qualities of odors, the awareness of odors, the attitudes towards them, and the ability to form olfactory images in the mind. Bayesian statistics were used to assess differences between low, medium and high alexithymia groups, and Linear Mixed Models (LMMs) were applied to investigate the modulation of the affective and cognitive components of alexithymia. We observed that individuals with a high level of alexithymia presented the same olfactory abilities, and did not show differences in their rating of odors compared to individuals with low alexithymia levels, while they reported lower levels of social and common odor awareness and a more indifferent attitude towards odors. Olfactory imagery was not affected by alexithymia level, and the affective and cognitive components of alexithymia, when considered separately, modulated olfactory perception differently. Learning more about olfactory perception in individuals with alexithymia leads to a better understanding of how alexithymia impacts the perception of hedonic stimuli coming from different sensory modalities. Our results imply that treatment goals for alexithymia should be the enhancement of the conscious perception of odors, supporting the use of mindfulness-based protocols in the alexithymia treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cinzia Cecchetto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Elisa Dal Bò
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Marilena Aiello
- Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari", University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Florian Ph S Fischmeister
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- BioTechMed-Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Claudio Gentili
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Sofia Adelaide Osimo
- Department of Psychology, MibTec, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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Perszyk EE, Davis XS, Djordjevic J, Jones-Gotman M, Trinh J, Hutelin Z, Veldhuizen MG, Koban L, Wager TD, Kober H, Small DM. Odor imagery but not perception drives risk for food cue reactivity and increased adiposity. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.06.527292. [PMID: 36798231 PMCID: PMC9934556 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.06.527292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
Mental imagery has been proposed to play a critical role in the amplification of cravings. Here we tested whether olfactory imagery drives food cue reactivity strength to promote adiposity in 45 healthy individuals. We measured odor perception, odor imagery ability, and food cue reactivity using self-report, perceptual testing, and neuroimaging. Adiposity was assessed at baseline and one year later. Brain responses to real and imagined odors were analyzed with univariate and multivariate decoding methods to identify pattern-based olfactory codes. We found that the accuracy of decoding imagined, but not real, odor quality correlated with a perceptual measure of odor imagery ability and with greater adiposity changes. This latter relationship was mediated by cue-potentiated craving and intake. Collectively, these findings establish odor imagery ability as a risk factor for weight gain and more specifically as a mechanism by which exposure to food cues promotes craving and overeating.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily E. Perszyk
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Xue S. Davis
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Jelena Djordjevic
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Marilyn Jones-Gotman
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada
| | - Jessica Trinh
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Zach Hutelin
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Maria G. Veldhuizen
- Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Ciftlikkoy Campus, Mersin 33343, Turkey
| | - Leonie Koban
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, INSERM, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
| | - Tor D. Wager
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Hedy Kober
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - Dana M. Small
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
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5
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Dal Bò E, Gentili C, Castellani A, Tripodi C, Fischmeister FPS, Cecchetto C. Olfactory meta-cognition in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms: The differential role of common and social odors. J Affect Disord 2022; 308:259-267. [PMID: 35429542 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.04.071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Diminished olfactory functioning has been reported in depression, whereas evidence in anxiety disorders is still controversial. Olfactory meta-cognitive abilities (i.e., olfactory awareness, imagery and reactivity, and the importance of odors) are essential in shaping olfaction. Few studies examined these meta-cognitive abilities in relation to depressive, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms, and none of them considered the awareness of social odors (i.e., body odors). METHODS This pre-registered study examined the relationship between olfactory meta-cognitive abilities and symptoms of depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety in 429 individuals. Self-report measures of symptoms of depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety, along with self-report olfactory meta-cognitive scales, were collected using an online survey. RESULTS Linear regression analyses revealed that olfactory awareness and importance of common odors were significantly directly predicted by symptoms of general anxiety, while affective importance to odors was negatively predicted by symptoms of depression. Regarding social odors, higher symptoms of depression and lower symptoms of social anxiety predicted increased awareness. LIMITATIONS Higher prevalence of women and narrow age range of the participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed only with self-report questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS Symptoms of anxiety seem to be associated with higher levels of common odor awareness, corroborating the importance of olfactory functions in anxiety. In addition, results on social odors seem to reflect dysfunctional social behaviour that characterized symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Hence, the assessment of meta-cognitive abilities may represent a useful tool in the prevention and assessment of depressive, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Dal Bò
- Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Via Orus 2/B, 35131 Padua, Italy; Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Claudio Gentili
- Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Via Orus 2/B, 35131 Padua, Italy; Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Andrea Castellani
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Carmen Tripodi
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Florian Ph S Fischmeister
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria; BioTechMed, Graz, Austria; Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Cinzia Cecchetto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy.
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6
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Morie KP, Crowley MJ, Mayes LC, Potenza MN. The process of emotion identification: Considerations for psychiatric disorders. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 148:264-274. [PMID: 35151218 PMCID: PMC8969204 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.01.053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 12/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Emotional regulation is important for mental health and behavioral regulation. A relevant precursor to emotional regulation may involve identification of one's emotions. Here, we propose a model of seven components that may provide a foundation for emotion identification. These factors include baseline mood, monitoring, physiological responses, interoception, past personal experiences regarding emotions/metacognition, context, and labeling. We additionally examine how deficits in different components may contribute to the concept of alexithymia, which is defined by difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions. Ultimately, we explore how the model may support a relationship between specific psychiatric disorders and alexithymia. The proposed model may help explain emotional identification impairment in multiple psychiatric disorders and guide future research and treatment development efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen P Morie
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
| | - Michael J Crowley
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA
| | - Linda C Mayes
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA
| | - Marc N Potenza
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA; Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, Wethersfield, CT, 06109, USA; Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, 06519, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA
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7
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Food olfactory cues reactivity in individuals with obesity and the contribution of alexithymia. Appetite 2021; 169:105827. [PMID: 34843753 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2021] [Revised: 11/21/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Obesity has been associated with increased reward sensitivity to food stimuli, but a few studies have addressed this issue by using odors. This study investigated whether obesity is associated with increased liking and wanting of food odors and whether alexithymia, a psychological construct characterized by diminished affective abilities, contributes to altered responsiveness to food. Liking and wanting for food and pleasant non-food odors were measured through explicit (self-report ratings) and implicit measures (heart rate and skin conductance) in 23 women with healthy weight (HW) and 20 women with overweight/obesity (OW/OB). Differently from the HW group, the OW/OB group explicitly liked food odors less than non-food odors; but, at the implicit level, there were no differences in heart rate response for both types of odors, indicating that they were equally liked. Moreover, at variance with the HW group, the OW/OB group did not exhibit increased skin conductance response for food compared to nonfood odors. Alexithymia was associated with increased implicit liking and explicit wanting of food odors, in particular in the HW group. These findings show that obesity is characterized by high levels of implicit food liking and low levels of implicit food wanting. Moreover, both affective and motivational responses to food reward seem to be affected by alexithymia, which should be taken into account by studies evaluating the effect of cue exposure intervention for obesity treatment.
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8
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The Effect of Odour Valence and Odour Detection Threshold on the Withholding and Cancellation of Reach-to-Press Responses. CHEMOSENS PERCEPT 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12078-021-09292-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
Withholding uninitiated actions and cancelling ongoing ones are two main components of response inhibition, a key element of the executive control. Inhibitory performance is sensitive to emotional contexts elicited by subliminal and supraliminal visual material. However, whether stimuli from other sensory modalities, such as odours, would equally modulate response inhibition remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess the effect of task-irrelevant odours as a function of their valence and threshold on both action withholding and action cancellation of reach-to-press movements.
Method
Thirty-two healthy participants performed a Go/No-Go task that included the presentation of pleasant (orange) and unpleasant (trimethyloxazole) odour primes at supra- and sub-threshold levels; clean air was included as a control condition. The reach-to-press responses were composed of an initial release phase and a subsequent reaching phase.
Results
Only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. control) odour impaired action withholding. Moreover, the pleasant (vs. control) odour—presented at both sub- and supra-threshold levels—elicited more accurate Go responses, whereas the sub- and supra-threshold pleasant and unpleasant (vs. control) odours triggered faster responses in the release phase. Additionally, only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. unpleasant) odour impaired action cancellation in the reaching phase. Furthermore, reaching responses were slower following the supra-threshold unpleasant (vs. control) odour.
Conclusions
Our findings extend the sparse literature on the impact of odour stimuli on goal-directed behaviour, highlighting the role of both odour valence and threshold in the modulation of response inhibition.
Implications
Determining the mechanisms by which odour stimuli modulate response inhibition lays the foundations for research on odour-triggered disinhibition.
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Terenzi D, Catalan M, Polverino P, Bertolotti C, Manganotti P, Rumiati RI, Aiello M. Effects of tDCS on reward responsiveness and valuation in Parkinson's patients with impulse control disorders. J Neurol 2021; 269:1557-1565. [PMID: 34333702 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-021-10733-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Revised: 07/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with impulse control disorders (ICD) frequently report hypersensitivity to rewards. However, a few studies have explored the effectiveness of modulation techniques on symptoms experienced by these patients. In this study, we assessed the effect of anodal tDCS over the DLPFC on reward responsiveness and valuation in PD patients with ICD. 43 participants (15 PD patients with ICD, 13 PD without ICD, and 15 healthy matched controls) were asked to perform a reward-craving test employing both explicit (self-ratings of liking and wanting) and implicit (heart rate and skin conductance response) measures, as well as two temporal discounting tasks with food and money rewards. Each participant performed the experimental tasks during active anodal tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex (M1), and sham tDCS. Results showed increased wanting and a steeper temporal discounting of rewards in PD with ICD compared to the other groups. Moreover, we found that PD without ICD exhibit reduced liking for rewards. tDCS results capable to modulate the altered intensity of PD patients' liking, but not wanting and temporal discounting of rewards in PD patients with ICD. These findings confirm that alterations in reward responsiveness and valuation are characteristics of impulse control disorders in patients with PD but suggest that anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC is not capable to influence these processes. At the same time, they provide new insight into affective experience of rewards in PD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damiano Terenzi
- Area of Neuroscience, SISSA, Via Bonomea, 265, Trieste, TS, Italy.,Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany.,Berlin Institute of Health, Neuroscience Research Center, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Deutsches Zentrum Für Diabetes, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Mauro Catalan
- Clinical Unit of Neurology, Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospital and Health Services of Trieste, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Paola Polverino
- Clinical Unit of Neurology, Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospital and Health Services of Trieste, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Claudio Bertolotti
- Clinical Unit of Neurology, Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospital and Health Services of Trieste, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Paolo Manganotti
- Clinical Unit of Neurology, Department of Medical Sciences, University Hospital and Health Services of Trieste, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Raffaella I Rumiati
- Area of Neuroscience, SISSA, Via Bonomea, 265, Trieste, TS, Italy.,SSAS - Scuola superiore di Studi Avanzati Sapienza, Rome, Italy
| | - Marilena Aiello
- Area of Neuroscience, SISSA, Via Bonomea, 265, Trieste, TS, Italy.
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10
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Suslow T, Kersting A. Beyond Face and Voice: A Review of Alexithymia and Emotion Perception in Music, Odor, Taste, and Touch. Front Psychol 2021; 12:707599. [PMID: 34393944 PMCID: PMC8362879 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.707599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality trait characterized by deficits in recognizing and verbalizing one's emotions. It has been shown that alexithymia is related to an impaired perception of external emotional stimuli, but previous research focused on emotion perception from faces and voices. Since sensory modalities represent rather distinct input channels it is important to know whether alexithymia also affects emotion perception in other modalities and expressive domains. The objective of our review was to summarize and systematically assess the literature on the impact of alexithymia on the perception of emotional (or hedonic) stimuli in music, odor, taste, and touch. Eleven relevant studies were identified. On the basis of the reviewed research, it can be preliminary concluded that alexithymia might be associated with deficits in the perception of primarily negative but also positive emotions in music and a reduced perception of aversive taste. The data available on olfaction and touch are inconsistent or ambiguous and do not allow to draw conclusions. Future investigations would benefit from a multimethod assessment of alexithymia and control of negative affect. Multimodal research seems necessary to advance our understanding of emotion perception deficits in alexithymia and clarify the contribution of modality-specific and supramodal processing impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany
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11
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Rochet M, El-Hage W, Dreyfuss L, Atanasova B. The influence of affective state on sensory and emotional perception: Application of the Sense'n Feel™ method. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 53:298-310. [PMID: 32478871 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2019] [Revised: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Emotions play a key role in our daily life through their control over our thoughts and behaviors. While it is commonly accepted that depressive patients have emotional perception disorders, it is important to know how these disorders affect patients' sensory perception to develop products to provide them with better support. In this study, we first examined the existence of modifications in the emotional perception of subjects with minor depressive symptoms (MDS, n = 80) compared with healthy controls (HC, n = 80) using a nonverbal method based on pictures to measure projected emotions and personality traits: the Sense'n Feel™ method. The investigated stimuli were two unpleasant and two pleasant odors and one pleasant food product: a madeleine. Second, we investigated the hedonic, familiarity and intensity olfactory perceptions of the subjects using the same stimuli. No significant difference was found in any olfactory qualities between the two groups. Concerning the pleasant olfactory stimuli, however, we did note that the MDS subjects had a significantly lower score for the positive emotion of joy/happiness than the controls. Additionally, the MDS group's attribution of some positive personality traits for the three pleasant stimuli was significantly weaker than that in the HC group. These results could be explained by the affective state of the MDS subjects; they were more anxious and more alexithymic compared with the controls. Further research is needed to validate our study in clinically depressed individuals and to determine whether the modifications of the emotional olfactory perception are due to the disease and/or to neuropsychological alterations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marion Rochet
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, INSERM, Tours, France.,Faculté Sciences et Techniques, Université de Tours, Tours, France
| | - Wissam El-Hage
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, INSERM, Tours, France.,CHRU de Tours, Clinique Psychiatrique Universitaire, Tours, France
| | - Lise Dreyfuss
- Faculté Sciences et Techniques, Université de Tours, Tours, France.,Mérieux NutriSciences, Verrières-le-Buisson, France
| | - Boriana Atanasova
- UMR 1253, iBrain, Université de Tours, INSERM, Tours, France.,Faculté Sciences et Techniques, Université de Tours, Tours, France
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Hou HR, Zhang XN, Meng QH. Odor-induced emotion recognition based on average frequency band division of EEG signals. J Neurosci Methods 2020; 334:108599. [PMID: 31978490 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2019] [Revised: 01/04/2020] [Accepted: 01/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Emotion recognition plays a key role in multimedia. To enhance the sensation of reality, smell has been incorporated into multimedia systems because it can directly stimulate memories and trigger strong emotions. NEW METHOD For the recognition of olfactory-induced emotions, this study explored a combination method using a support vector machine (SVM) with an average frequency band division (AFBD) method, where the AFBD method was proposed to extract the power-spectral-density (PSD) features from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals induced by smelling different odors. The so-called AFBD method means that each PSD feature was calculated based on equal frequency bandwidths, rather than the traditional EEG rhythm-based bandwidth. Thirteen odors were used to induce olfactory EEGs and their corresponding emotions. These emotions were then divided into two types of emotions, pleasure and disgust, or five types of emotions that were very unpleasant, slightly unpleasant, neutral, slightly pleasant, and very pleasant. RESULTS Comparison between the proposed SVM plus AFBD method and other methods found average accuracies of 98.9 % and 88.5 % for two- and five-emotion recognition, respectively. These values were considerably higher than those of other combination methods, such as the combinations of AFBD or EEG rhythm-based features with naive Bayesian, k-nearest neighbor classification, voting-extreme learning machine, and backpropagation neural network methods. CONCLUSIONS The SVM plus AFBD method represents a useful contribution to olfactory-induced emotion recognition. Classification of the five-emotion categories was generally inferior to the classification of the two-emotion categories, suggesting that the recognition performance decreased as the number of emotions in the category increased.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui-Rang Hou
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, Institute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xiao-Nei Zhang
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, Institute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Qing-Hao Meng
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, Institute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
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13
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Cecchetto C, Fischmeister FPS, Gorkiewicz S, Schuehly W, Bagga D, Parma V, Schöpf V. Human body odor increases familiarity for faces during encoding-retrieval task. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:1904-1919. [PMID: 31904899 PMCID: PMC7268037 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Revised: 10/31/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Odors can increase memory performance when presented as context during both encoding and retrieval phases. Since information from different sensory modalities is integrated into a unified conceptual knowledge, we hypothesize that the social information from body odors and faces would be integrated during encoding. The integration of such social information would enhance retrieval more so than when the encoding occurs in the context of common odors. To examine this hypothesis and to further explore the underlying neural correlates of this behavior, we have conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants performed an encoding‐retrieval memory task for faces during the presentation of common odor, body odor or clean air. At the behavioral level, results show that participants were less biased and faster in recognizing faces when presented in concomitance with the body odor compared to the common odor. At the neural level, the encoding of faces in the body odor condition, compared to common odor and clean air conditions, showed greater activation in areas related to associative memory (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), odor perception and multisensory integration (orbitofrontal cortex). These results suggest that face and body odor information were integrated and as a result, participants were faster in recognizing previously presented material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cinzia Cecchetto
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria
| | | | | | | | - Deepika Bagga
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria
| | - Valentina Parma
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Veronika Schöpf
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria.,Computational Imaging Research Lab (CIR), Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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14
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Nam G, Lee H, Lee JH, Hur JW. Disguised Emotion in Alexithymia: Subjective Difficulties in Emotion Processing and Increased Empathic Distress. Front Psychiatry 2020; 11:698. [PMID: 32765327 PMCID: PMC7379392 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2020] [Accepted: 07/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite decades of speculation, many causal aspects that contribute to the heterogeneity of alexithymia still must be clarified. This study examined the extent of the alexithymia phenotype and its contribution to social function in the general population. In total, 200 participants (females = 111) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), multiple self-reporting questionnaires measuring emotion intelligence, empathy, hostility and impulsivity, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). In the multivariate analysis, highly alexithymic individuals appeared to report subjective deficits in emotion recognition and regulation as well as increased impulsivity; however, their empathy skills were intact, and even the proneness to experiencing empathic distress with others' suffering was increased among alexithymic individuals. We also compared the clinical and behavioral manifestations of highly alexithymic male and female subjects to those of each gender control group. As a result, in contrast to their subjective self-reports of emotion processing impairment, the RMET performance appeared to be preserved in alexithymic females; however, highly alexithymic males showed actual deficits in the emotion identification task. Future research needs to further refine the constructs of alexithymia to incorporate the phenotypic changes in affected individuals in relation to measuring instruments, the extent of empathic distress, and gender.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gieun Nam
- Clinical Neuro-Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Hyerin Lee
- Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Jang-Han Lee
- Clinical Neuro-Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Ji-Won Hur
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
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15
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Mutic S, Freiherr J, Cavazzana A, Rocha M, Soares SC, Parma V. The scent of the other women: Body odor-induced behavioral and physiological effects on face categorization. Physiol Behav 2019; 210:112562. [PMID: 31171364 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2018] [Revised: 05/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/24/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
In body odor research, the interaction of female donors and receivers is scarcely investigated. With the aim to investigate effects of female body odor in a competitive context, we tested 51 women divided into two groups (i.e., a competitive and a non-competitive group, based on verbal instructions). Between groups, we explored whether female body odor exposure (vs. masker odor) modulates emotion categorization (via RT variance and distribution) and physiological reactions (via instantaneous heart rate) in a task with dynamic male and female faces as either angry or happy. Women in the competitive group reported to feel more competitive and performed more accurately. They gathered more emotional information to categorize dynamic faces and when additionally exposed to female body odor, they showed a resistance to cardiac deceleration. Lapses of attention (via RT distribution) occurred irrespective of body odor exposure. Our results support the idea that female body odors, presented in a competitive context, contrast cardiac deceleration and, by tendency, modulate emotion categorization. Data are discussed in the context of chemosignaling and social interactions among women.
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Affiliation(s)
- Smiljana Mutic
- Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Jessica Freiherr
- Section Neuroscience of Sensory Perception, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany; Department Sensory Analytics, Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, Freising, Germany
| | - Annachiara Cavazzana
- Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany; Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Marta Rocha
- CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education & Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; William James Center for Research, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Sandra C Soares
- CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education & Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; William James Center for Research, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Valentina Parma
- Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA; William James Center for Research, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisbon, Portugal; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
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16
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Emotions associated with different textures during touch. Conscious Cogn 2019; 71:79-85. [PMID: 30970295 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2018] [Revised: 03/30/2019] [Accepted: 03/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Haptics plays an important role in emotion perception. However, most studies of the affective aspects of haptics have investigated emotional valence rather than emotional categories. In the present study, we explored the associations of different textures with six basic emotions: fear, anger, happiness, disgust, sadness and surprise. Participants touched twenty-one different textures and evaluated them using six emotional scales. Additionally, we explored whether individual differences in participants' levels of alexithymia are related to the intensity of emotions associated with touching the textures. Alexithymia is a trait related to difficulties in identifying, describing and communicating emotions to others. The findings show that people associated touching different textures with distinct emotions. Textures associated with each of the basic emotions were identified. The study also revealed that a higher alexithymia level corresponds to a higher intensity of associations between textures and the emotions of disgust, anger and sadness.
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Body odors (even when masked) make you more emotional: behavioral and neural insights. Sci Rep 2019; 9:5489. [PMID: 30940875 PMCID: PMC6445102 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41937-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2018] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Morality evolved within specific social contexts that are argued to shape moral choices. In turn, moral choices are hypothesized to be affected by body odors as they powerfully convey socially-relevant information. We thus investigated the neural underpinnings of the possible body odors effect on the participants’ decisions. In an fMRI study we presented to healthy individuals 64 moral dilemmas divided in incongruent (real) and congruent (fake) moral dilemmas, using different types of harm (intentional: instrumental dilemmas, or inadvertent: accidental dilemmas). Participants were required to choose deontological or utilitarian actions under the exposure to a neutral fragrance (masker) or body odors concealed by the same masker (masked body odor). Smelling the masked body odor while processing incongruent (not congruent) dilemmas activates the supramarginal gyrus, consistent with an increase in prosocial attitude. When processing accidental (not instrumental) dilemmas, smelling the masked body odor activates the angular gyrus, an area associated with the processing of people’s presence, supporting the hypothesis that body odors enhance the saliency of the social context in moral scenarios. These results suggest that masked body odors can influence moral choices by increasing the emotional experience during the decision process, and further explain how sensory unconscious biases affect human behavior.
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Smith R, Kaszniak AW, Katsanis J, Lane RD, Nielsen L. The importance of identifying underlying process abnormalities in alexithymia: Implications of the three-process model and a single case study illustration. Conscious Cogn 2019; 68:33-46. [DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2018] [Revised: 12/14/2018] [Accepted: 12/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Activity of frontal pole cortex reflecting hedonic tone of food and drink: fNIRS study in humans. Sci Rep 2018; 8:16197. [PMID: 30385816 PMCID: PMC6212539 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-34690-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/22/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Cognitive and hedonic aspects of taste have been studied using different neuroimaging techniques in humans. However, the methods used are unsuitable for easy monitoring of hedonics induced by intake of foods and beverages. Here we have tried to monitor changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (oxyHb) levels in the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC, frontopolar cortex, Brodmann area 10) in response to intake of hedonically different edibles in healthy adults. When subjects tasted sweet and bitter solutions freely without any particular instruction, cortical activation varied greatly among subjects and between the two stimuli, and no consistent results were obtained. Subjects then ate or drank preferred (hedonically positive) and disliked (hedonically negative) edibles. Although these stimuli differed among subjects, hedonically positive stimuli decreased oxyHb, whereas hedonically negative stimuli increased oxyHb, particularly in the ventral aPFC. When subjects tasted 4 kinds of jellies with different flavors and evaluated the degree of pleasantness, oxyHb level in the ventral region correlated negatively with pleasantness score. These results revealed that pleasant and unpleasant edibles tended to elicit decreased and increased oxyHb levels, respectively, within the ventral aPFC, suggesting that monitoring of oxyHb in this region may prove useful for objective evaluation of pleasantness of food and drink.
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