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Subjective responses to emotional body odors and common odors in autism-spectrum disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

J. Grave ,
J. Noll ,
F. Barros ,
L. Kogler ,
J. Freiherr ,
D. Wildgruber ,
S. Soares  and
B. Derntl
J. Grave*
Affiliation:
William James Center For Research, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Centre For Research In Health Technologies And Services, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Faculty Of Medicine, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
J. Noll
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Medicine, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
F. Barros
Affiliation:
William James Center For Research, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Centre For Research In Health Technologies And Services, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
L. Kogler
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Medicine, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
J. Freiherr
Affiliation:
Department Of Sensory Analytics, Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV), Freising, Germany
D. Wildgruber
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Medicine, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
S. Soares
Affiliation:
William James Center For Research, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal Centre For Research In Health Technologies And Services, Department Of Education And Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
B. Derntl
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Medicine, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany Lead Graduate School And Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany Werner Reichardt Centre For Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficits in social domains, associated with abnormal socioemotional perception. Although olfaction provides access to socioemotional cues, little is known about the perception of emotional odors considering their social meaning in ASD.

Objectives

To investigate the subjective responses to emotional body odors (BOs) versus non-social, common odors (COs) in ASD.

Methods

Eleven ASD and 49 typically developed (TD) adults were asked to smell negative, positive, and neutral BOs (axillary sweat from healthy individuals exposed to fearful, happy, and neutral film-clips) and COs, and to rate each odor on perceived pleasantness, intensity, familiarity and arousal. Odors were presented for 5 sec. Analyses were performed with linear mixed-effect models with fixed factors (group × odor type × valence) and covariates (e.g., age; intensity for arousal/familiarity; familiarity for pleasantness). Post-hoc comparisons were Bonferroni-corrected.

Results

Odors were perceived as significantly more intense (p=.044) and pleasant (p<.001) in ASD than TD. Distinct response patterns were found in ASD and TD. First, positive BOs and COs were similarly arousing and pleasant in ASD (p>.05), but not in TD (p<.001). Second, positive and neutral COs were equally arousing, familiar and pleasant in ASD (p>.05), but not in TD (p<.001). No differences were observed between BOs in ASD and TD (p>.05).

Conclusions

ASD is associated with abnormal subjective responses to emotional odors, which could contribute to the social communication difficulties characterizing ASD. Since emotional BOs elicit psychological responses in others, analyses on subjective and automatic responses will allow a better understanding of the role of olfaction in ASD.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Autism-spectrum disordersolfactionbody odoremotion
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S613
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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