Robin O, Alaoui-Ismaïli O, Dittmar A, Vernet-Maury E
Département de physiologie, Faculté d'Odontologie, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France.
Chem Senses. 1999 Jun;24(3):327-35. doi: 10.1093/chemse/24.3.327.
Subjective individual experiences seem to indicate that odors may form strong connections with memories, especially those charged with emotional significance. In the dental field, this could be the case with the odorant eugenol, responsible for the typical clinging odor impregnating the dental office. The odor of eugenol could evoke memories of unpleasant dental experiences and, therefore, negative feelings such as anxiety and fear, since eugenates (cements containing eugenol) are used in potentially painful restorative dentistry. This hypothesis was tested by evaluating the emotional impact of the odor of eugenol through autonomic nervous system (ANS) analysis. The simultaneous variations of six ANS parameters (two electrodermal, two thermovascular and two cardiorespiratory), induced by the inhalation of this odorant, were recorded on volunteer subjects. Vanillin (a pleasant odorant) and propionic acid (an unpleasant one) served as controls. After the experiment, subjects were asked to rate the pleasantness versus unpleasantness of each odorant on an 11-point hedonic scale. The patterns of autonomic responses, obtained for each odorant and each subject, were transcribed into one of the six basic emotions defined by Ekman et al. (happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, anger and disgust). Results were compared between two groups of subjects divided according to their dental experience (fearful and non-fearful dental care subjects) and showed significant differences only for eugenol. This odorant was rated as pleasant by non-fearful dental subjects but unpleasant by fearful dental subjects. The evoked autonomic responses were mainly associated with positive basic emotions (happiness and surprise) in non-fearful dental subjects and with negative basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust) in fearful dental subjects. These results suggest that eugenol can be responsible for different emotional states depending on the subjects' dental experience, which seems to confirm the potential role of odors as elicitors of emotional memories. This study also supports the possible influence of the ambient odor impregnating the dental office, strengthening a negative conditioning toward dental care in some anxious patients.
主观个体体验似乎表明，气味可能与记忆形成强烈关联，尤其是那些带有情感意义的记忆。在牙科领域，丁香酚这种气味剂可能就是如此，它赋予牙科诊所那种典型的挥之不去的气味。丁香酚的气味可能唤起不愉快的牙科经历的记忆，进而引发焦虑和恐惧等负面情绪，因为丁香酚制剂（含丁香酚的黏固剂）用于可能会带来疼痛的牙齿修复治疗。通过自主神经系统（ANS）分析来评估丁香酚气味的情感影响，对这一假设进行了验证。在志愿者身上记录了吸入这种气味剂所引发的六个ANS参数（两个皮肤电参数、两个热血管参数和两个心肺参数）的同步变化。香草醛（一种宜人的气味剂）和丙酸（一种难闻的气味剂）作为对照。实验结束后，要求受试者在一个11级的享乐量表上对每种气味剂的宜人程度与难闻程度进行评分。将为每种气味剂和每个受试者获得的自主反应模式转化为埃克曼等人定义的六种基本情绪之一（快乐、惊讶、悲伤、恐惧、愤怒和厌恶）。根据牙科经历将受试者分为两组（害怕牙科治疗的受试者和不害怕牙科治疗的受试者），对两组结果进行比较，结果显示仅丁香酚存在显著差异。不害怕牙科治疗的受试者将这种气味剂评为宜人，而害怕牙科治疗的受试者则认为它难闻。在不害怕牙科治疗的受试者中，诱发的自主反应主要与积极的基本情绪（快乐和惊讶）相关，而在害怕牙科治疗的受试者中则与消极的基本情绪（恐惧、愤怒、厌恶）相关。这些结果表明，丁香酚可能会根据受试者的牙科经历引发不同的情绪状态，这似乎证实了气味作为情感记忆激发因素的潜在作用。这项研究还支持了弥漫在牙科诊所的环境气味可能产生的影响，强化了一些焦虑患者对牙科治疗的负面条件反射。
