Eliasson Emma T, Vigna Elisa, Dal Bò Elisa, Cecchetto Cinzia, Zurlo Letizia, Gentili Claudio, Scilingo Enzo Pasquale, Greco Alberto, Di Francesco Fabio, Citi Luca, Vanello Nicola, Lundström Johan N, Hadlaczky Gergö, Carli Vladimir
National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Institutet, Granits väg 4, Stockholm, 17165, Sweden.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8 - 35131, Padua, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2025 Sep 12;15(1):32459. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-18246-w.
Body odours (BOs) of individuals in specific emotional states can influence receivers' responses - referred to as an emotional contagion. To investigate the potential of BOs to enhance the effects of mindfulness practice, this quasi-randomised pilot study tested the hypothesis that participants exposed to emotional BOs during mindfulness meditation would exhibit a steeper decrease in state anxiety symptoms compared to mindfulness alone (clean air control). Ninety-eight women meeting criteria for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) received two mindfulness sessions over two consecutive days, while randomly allocated to one of four conditions: fear BO, joy BO, neutral BO or a clean air control group. No odour × time interaction effect was observed, rejecting the primary hypothesis. Although not statistically significant, effect size estimates suggested a greater reduction in state anxiety for the group receiving fear chemosignals (Day 1 Cohen's d = 0.26, Day 2 Cohen's d = 0.54) compared to the clean air control group. Moreover, the BO groups perceived the mindfulness practice as significantly more helpful compared to the control group (p = 0.002). Given the sample size limits, a larger Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) incorporating more mindfulness + BO sessions is recommended to further examine the therapeutic potential of human BOs.
处于特定情绪状态下的个体的体臭（BOs）会影响接受者的反应——这被称为情绪感染。为了研究体臭增强正念练习效果的潜力，这项准随机试点研究检验了以下假设：与仅进行正念练习（清洁空气对照组）相比，在正念冥想期间接触情绪性体臭的参与者在状态焦虑症状上的下降幅度会更大。98名符合社交焦虑障碍（SAD）标准的女性连续两天接受了两次正念课程，同时被随机分配到四个条件之一：恐惧体臭组、喜悦体臭组、中性体臭组或清洁空气对照组。未观察到气味×时间的交互作用效应，从而拒绝了原假设。尽管在统计学上不显著，但效应量估计表明，与清洁空气对照组相比，接受恐惧化学信号的组在状态焦虑方面的下降幅度更大（第1天科恩d值 = 0.26，第2天科恩d值 = 0.54）。此外，与对照组相比，体臭组认为正念练习更有帮助（p = 0.002）。鉴于样本量的限制，建议进行一项更大规模的随机对照试验（RCT），纳入更多的正念 + 体臭课程，以进一步研究人体体臭的治疗潜力。
