Emotional reactivity to odors: Olfactory sensitivity and the span of emotional evaluation separate the genders |
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Authors: | Norbert Thuerauf,Udo Reulbach,Jens Lunkenheimer,Birgit Lunkenheimer,Rita Spannenberger,Andrea Gossler,Christian Maihö fner,Stefan Bleich,Johannes Kornhuber,Katrin Markovic |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany;2. Department of Neurology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany;3. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College Cork, 1 Perrot Avenue College Road, Cork, Ireland;4. Department of Psychiatry, Social-Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Hannover (MHH), Section Medicine, Carl-Neuberg-Straße 1, Germany |
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Abstract: | Numerous studies report gender differences in emotional reactivity in health and disease and the perception of odors is closely linked to the limbic system. In order to investigate gender differences in the emotional perception of odors we extended the Sniffin’ Stick Test with analogue rating scales for hedonic (pleasantness/unpleasantness) and intensity estimates. We matched 172 healthy subjects (86 females and 86 males) on age in order to balance the study population for three age strata (A: 19–39 years, B: 40–59, C: 60 years and above). Overall odors in our statistical analysis demonstrated significant gender differences for the absolute hedonic estimates but not for the relative hedonic and not for the intensity estimates. These findings demonstrate that women evaluate the pleasantness of perceived odors in a more extreme manner than men without significant differences in hedonic polarity (pleasantness/unpleasantness). Thus, we report a singular significant effect of gender on the dimension valence (hedonic estimation) independent from the dimension intensity. Our findings are in accordance with gender differences in facial reactivity to auditory stimuli and differences in the evaluation of emotional pictures. Investigating olfactory sensitivity females detected n-butanol and discriminated the 16 odors of the test significantly better than males. These results indicate that females possess higher olfactory sensitivity. |
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Keywords: | Gender differences Emotion Hedonic Olfaction Smell |
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