Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Via Orus 2/B, Padua, Italy.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, Padua, Italy.
Chem Senses. 2020 Dec 5;45(9):855-864. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa067.
Across phyla, chemosignals are a widely used form of social communication and increasing evidence suggests that chemosensory communication is present also in humans. Chemosignals can transfer, via body odors, socially relevant information, such as specific information about identity or emotional states. However, findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors are divergent. The aims of this meta-analysis were to assess the brain areas involved in the perception of body odors (both neutral and emotional) and the specific activation patterns for the perception of neutral body odor (NBO) and emotional body odor (EBO). We conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on 16 experiments (13 studies) examining brain activity during body odors processing. We found that the contrast EBO versus NBO resulted in significant convergence in the right middle frontal gyrus and the left cerebellum, whereas the pooled meta-analysis combining all the studies of human odors showed significant convergence in the right inferior frontal gyrus. No significant cluster was found for NBOs. However, our findings also highlight methodological heterogeneity across the existing literature. Further neuroimaging studies are needed to clarify and support the existing findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors.
跨门纲目，化学信号是一种广泛使用的社会交流形式，越来越多的证据表明，化学感官通讯也存在于人类中。化学信号可以通过体臭传递社会相关信息，例如特定的身份或情绪状态信息。然而，关于处理体臭的神经相关物的研究结果却存在分歧。本荟萃分析的目的是评估参与体臭（中性和情绪）感知的大脑区域，以及中性体臭（NBO）和情绪体臭（EBO）感知的特定激活模式。我们对 16 项实验（13 项研究）进行了激活似然估计（ALE）荟萃分析，以研究在处理体臭时大脑的活动。我们发现，EBO 与 NBO 的对比导致右侧额中回和左侧小脑的显著收敛，而结合所有人类气味研究的荟萃分析则显示右侧额下回的显著收敛。没有发现 NBO 的显著聚类。然而，我们的研究结果也强调了现有文献中方法学的异质性。需要进一步的神经影像学研究来阐明和支持关于处理体臭的神经相关物的现有发现。
