Emotional reactivity to odors: Olfactory sensitivity and the span of emotional evaluation separate the genders

Thuerauf, Norbert; Reulbach, Udo; Lunkenheimer, Jens; Lunkenheimer, Birgit; Spannenberger, Rita; Gossler, Andrea; Maihöfner, Christian; Bleich, Stefan; Kornhuber, Johannes; Markovic, Katrin

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.096

Cited by 36 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Females possess higher olfactory sensitivity than males [57]. Impairments of the olfactory bulb and nuclei of cranial nerves IX and X in PD may represent accelerated normal aging or a disease-specific process [24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfactory dysfunction and cardiovascular dysautonomia in Parkinson’s disease

Oka¹,

Toyoda²,

Yogo³

et al. 2010

J Neurol

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Several studies have reported that olfactory dysfunction is an early neuropathological manifestation of Parkinson's disease (PD). Reduced cardiac meta-iodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) uptake may be one of the earliest signs of PD. We studied the relation of olfactory dysfunction to cardiovascular dysautonomia in patients with PD. The study group comprised 66 patients with PD (70.5 years) and 26 controls (70.3 years) for olfactory assessment, 21 controls (72.1 years) for cardiac (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy and heart rate variability (HRV), assessed using the coefficient of variation for RR intervals (HRV), and 23 controls (69.2 years) for orthostatic blood pressure response. Olfactory function was assessed by the odor stick identification test Japan (OSIT-J), and cardiovascular autonomic function was evaluated by (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy of the heart, the fall in orthostatic blood pressure, and HRV. Patients with PD had a significantly lower OSIT-J score than did the controls (4.1 +/- 3.0 vs. 9.9 +/- 1.7, p = 0.001). The OSIT-J score was unrelated to variables other than gender, including age, disease duration, motor score on the unified Parkinson's disease rating scale, score on the mini-mental state examination, motor phenotype, visual hallucinations, and dopaminergic medication on multiple regression and logistic regression analyses. The OSIT-J score was related to the heart/mediastinum ratio of cardiac (123)I-MIBG uptake, the fall in orthostatic blood pressure, and HRV, after adjustment for other clinical variables. Olfactory dysfunction in PD was, thus, significantly related to both cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic dysfunction, as well as vascular sympathetic dysfunction. As non-motor symptoms of PD, olfactory dysfunction and autonomic network failure appear to be closely related in PD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfactory dysfunction and cardiovascular dysautonomia in Parkinson’s disease

Oka¹,

Toyoda²,

Yogo³

et al. 2010

J Neurol

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“…What is noteworthy about these particular interactions, however, is that they are different to that found for spatial span in that women were more adversely affected by the unpleasant stimulus in the digit span and letter-sequencing tasks, the two tasks with the less salient spatial content/weight, and compared to responses in the pleasant odor condition. When comparing responses to the two odors specifically, one might speculate that this reflects women's greater sensitivity to odor, particularly pleasant odor [19,30,31] which, in turn, may make them more susceptible to its cognitive effects. But this does not explain their comparatively poorer performance during exposure to unpleasant odor.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working memory performance and exposure to pleasant and unpleasant ambient odor: Is spatial span special?

Martin

Chaudry²

2014

International Journal of Neuroscience

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Sensory influences on working memory (WM) performance were investigated in 86 healthy adults. Participants were exposed to an ambient pleasant odor (lemon), unpleasant odor (machine oil) or no odor during completion of three WM tests from the Wechsler Memory Scale-III: the letter-number sequencing, spatial span and digit span tests. A significant main effect of odor was found for spatial span but no other task: scores were significantly lower in the unpleasant odor condition than the pleasant odor condition. Significant odor × sex interactions were found for the spatial span, digit span and letter-number sequencing tasks: men's spatial span scores were lower in the unpleasant odor condition than in the control condition, and women's scores were significantly better in the pleasant odor condition than in the unpleasant odor condition. The results suggest that ambient odor may impair or facilitate specific types of WM depending on the task, sex of the participant and affective characteristics of the odor.

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“…Lundström et al (2005) suggest a difference between women and men in processing chemesthetic stimulation, and that the difference depends on cognitive and emotional factors. There is also evidence for gender differences in brain activation during hedonic judgments of olfactory stimuli, in which women evaluate odors either as more pleasant or more unpleasant (Royet et al 2003;Thuerauf et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Differences in Nasal Chemesthesis: A Study of Detection and Perceived Intensity

Claeson

Nordin

2011

Chem. Percept.

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Women are generally more intolerant than men to ambient substances, for which sensory irritation plays an important role. The aim of the present study was to compare women and men with respect to response bias and sensitivity in irritation detection and to irritation intensity. Twelve women and 12 men were exposed to six concentrations of amyl acetate generated by a dynamic olfactometer. Each concentration was presented eight times in randomized order. Clean-air presentations were interrandomized among the series of amyl acetate stimuli to assess and control for response bias. Ratings of irritation intensity were performed with a Borg CR-100 scale. No gender difference in overall irritation detection sensitivity was found, but a significantly steeper psychometric detection function for women implies keener detectability at relatively high concentrations and poorer detectability at low concentrations. A higher false-alarm rate and higher intensity ratings for blank stimuli for women compared to men did almost reach statistical significance. The data showed no overall gender difference in irritation intensity, but a less steep power function for irritation intensity for women, with relatively weak concentrations being perceived as stronger by women than by men. The results suggest no overall gender difference in irritation detectability, but a larger increase in detectability among women across the stimulus span. The tendency of gender differences in response bias implies differences in strategies when detecting possible health hazards. These strategies together with weak concentrations being perceived as stronger may contribute to women being more intolerant than men to ambient substances.

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Emotional reactivity to odors: Olfactory sensitivity and the span of emotional evaluation separate the genders

Cited by 36 publications

References 34 publications

Olfactory dysfunction and cardiovascular dysautonomia in Parkinson’s disease

Olfactory dysfunction and cardiovascular dysautonomia in Parkinson’s disease

Working memory performance and exposure to pleasant and unpleasant ambient odor: Is spatial span special?

Gender Differences in Nasal Chemesthesis: A Study of Detection and Perceived Intensity

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