The effect of pleasant and unpleasant odor on human physiological state was preliminary investigated by assessing salivary substances. A term “pleasant” (or unpleasant) is rather showing one’s subjective and thus mental state meanwhile the odor itself should give an impact to both human mind and body. This study was aimed at investigating an effect of pleasant/unpleasant odors on human body and...

Early intervention improves prognosis in autism spectrum disorder, yet diagnosis is very difficult in preverbal children. A new study demonstrates that the automatic adjustments in sniffing patterns to pleasant and unpleasant odors may provide a window into early diagnosis.

Pleasantness, familiarity, and intensity are 3 interdependent dimensions commonly used to describe the perceived qualities of an odor. In particular, many empirical studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between familiarity and pleasantness. However, on the basis of both theoretical and methodological perspectives, we questioned the validity of such a relation for malodors. We report ...

It can be difficult to document effects of age-related olfactory loss on eating behavior. However, we have reported that elders, especially those with poor olfaction, were more willing to accept novel foods than were younger adults. It was also found that elderly subjects were more willing to accept foods with unpleasant odors than were young subjects. Because there is often confounding between...

Irritation and negative valence are closely associated in perception. However, these perceptual aspects can be dissociated in olfaction where irritation can accompany both pleasant and unpleasant odorants. Whereas the sensation of odor reflects transduction at olfactory receptors, irritation reflects concurrent transduction of the odorant at trigeminal receptors. Thus a stimulus can be either a...

CONTEXT Loss of the capacity to experience pleasure (anhedonia) is a core clinical feature of schizophrenia. Although functional imaging techniques have been successful in identifying the neural basis of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, no attempts to date have been made to investigate neural systems underlying emotional disturbances. OBJECTIVE To study the neural basis of emotional pr...

We behaviorally explore the link between olfaction, emotion and memory by testing the hypothesis that the emotion carried by odors facilitates the memory of specific unique events. To investigate this idea, we used a novel behavioral approach inspired by a paradigm developed by our team to study episodic memory in a controlled and as ecological as possible way in humans. The participants freely...

Several studies have shown that a woman's vaginal or axillary odors convey information on her attractivity. Yet, whether such scents induce psychoneuroendocrinological changes in perceivers is still controversial. We studied if smelling axillary and vulvar odors collected in the periovulatory and late luteal phases of young women modify salivary testosterone and cortisol levels, as well as sexu...

Sewage and industrial plants located near residential areas can be subject to political and legal problems if these facilities produce unpleasant odors. In the case of a sewage plant and the associated collection system, chemicals or enzymes may be added to the liquid phase to prevent the formation of the odors. Mechanical changes to the sewage pump stations may also be made to reduce the odor....