Different armpits under my new nose: Olfactory sex but not gender affects implicit measures of embodiment

A conceptual framework on body representations and their relevance for mental disorders

“…For example, sounds (e.g., produced when breathing, eating or walking) have an effect on the overall body awareness (Murray et al, 2000;Azañón et al, 2016) and can even alter one's own perceived body weight (Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2015a) as well as the mental representation of arm length (Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2012. Likewise, scent stimuli can affect participants' perception of body shape and weight (Brianza et al, 2019) and booster the embodiment of a sex mismatching body in virtual reality (Lesur et al, 2023). This research on the significance of certain sensory sources for body representations, such as auditory and olfactory information, is still in its infancy, as these sources were more difficult to control and record experimentally in the past.…”

“…In case of body image, which is for example used for the perception of body size, exteroception (and especially visual information) seems to be more central than other modalities. However, the body image can also be based on other sensory information when visual input is not reliable or available (e.g., to estimate the size and shape of the back of one's head) and is known to be affected by tactile sensitivity (Linkenauger et al, 2015), as well as bodily sounds and odors (e.g., Tajadura-Jiménez et al, 2015b;Lesur et al, 2023). Disturbed interoceptive information also alters the body image as evident by effects of local anesthesia, pain and cutaneous stimulation on the perceived size of body parts like the thumb and lips (Gandevia and Phegan, 1999).…”