Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Transl Psychiatry. 2024 Aug 24;14(1):342. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-03038-z.
Humans can decode emotional states from the body odors of the conspecifics and this type of emotional communication is particularly relevant in conditions in which social interactions are impaired, as in depression and social anxiety. The present study aimed to explore how body odors collected in happiness and fearful conditions modulate the subjective ratings, the psychophysiological response and the neural processing of neutral faces in individuals with depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and healthy controls (N = 22 per group). To this aim, electrocardiogram (ECG) and HD-EEG were recorded continuously. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was extracted from the ECG as a measure of vagal tone, event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related spectral perturbations (ERPSs) were extracted from the EEG. The results revealed that the HRV increased during the fear and happiness body odors conditions compared to clean air, but no group differences emerged. For ERPs data, repeated measure ANOVA did not show any significant effects. However, the ERPSs analyses revealed a late increase in delta power and a reduced beta power both at an early and a late stage of stimulus processing in response to the neutral faces presented with the emotional body odors, regardless of the presence of depressive or social anxiety symptoms. The current research offers new insights, demonstrating that emotional chemosignals serve as potent environmental cues. This represents a substantial advancement in comprehending the impact of emotional chemosignals in both individuals with and without affective disorders.
人类可以从同种个体的体臭中解码出情绪状态，这种情感交流在社交互动受损的情况下尤为重要，如在抑郁症和社交焦虑症中。本研究旨在探索在有抑郁症状、社交焦虑症状和健康对照组（每组 22 人）的个体中，快乐和恐惧条件下收集的体臭如何调节对中性面孔的主观评价、心理生理反应和神经处理。为此，连续记录心电图（ECG）和高分辨率脑电图（HD-EEG）。从 ECG 中提取心率变异性（HRV）作为迷走神经张力的指标，从 EEG 中提取事件相关电位（ERP）和事件相关频谱扰动（ERPS）。结果表明，与清洁空气相比，恐惧和快乐体臭条件下的 HRV 增加，但组间无差异。对于 ERP 数据，重复测量方差分析没有显示出任何显著影响。然而，ERPSs 分析表明，在刺激处理的早期和晚期，无论是在有抑郁症状还是社交焦虑症状的情况下，与中性面孔一起呈现的情绪体臭会导致 delta 功率增加和 beta 功率降低。目前的研究提供了新的见解，表明情绪化学信号是有力的环境线索。这代表着在理解情感化学信号对有和没有情感障碍的个体的影响方面取得了重大进展。
