Title |
Chemosensory Cues to Conspecific Emotional Stress Activate Amygdala in Humans
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, July 2009
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0006415 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi, Helmut H. Strey, Blaise Frederick, Robert Savoy, David Cox, Yevgeny Botanov, Denis Tolkunov, Denis Rubin, Jochen Weber |
Abstract |
Alarm substances are airborne chemical signals, released by an individual into the environment, which communicate emotional stress between conspecifics. Here we tested whether humans, like other mammals, are able to detect emotional stress in others by chemosensory cues. Sweat samples collected from individuals undergoing an acute emotional stressor, with exercise as a control, were pooled and presented to a separate group of participants (blind to condition) during four experiments. In an fMRI experiment and its replication, we showed that scanned participants showed amygdala activation in response to samples obtained from donors undergoing an emotional, but not physical, stressor. An odor-discrimination experiment suggested the effect was primarily due to emotional, and not odor, differences between the two stimuli. A fourth experiment investigated behavioral effects, demonstrating that stress samples sharpened emotion-perception of ambiguous facial stimuli. Together, our findings suggest human chemosensory signaling of emotional stress, with neurobiological and behavioral effects. |
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Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 2 | 11% |
Chile | 1 | 6% |
Canada | 1 | 6% |
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of | 1 | 6% |
Israel | 1 | 6% |
Spain | 1 | 6% |
Unknown | 11 | 61% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 16 | 89% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 6% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 6% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Netherlands | 3 | 1% |
United States | 3 | 1% |
France | 2 | <1% |
Germany | 2 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
Korea, Republic of | 1 | <1% |
Sweden | 1 | <1% |
Czechia | 1 | <1% |
Greece | 1 | <1% |
Other | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 225 | 93% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 42 | 17% |
Student > Bachelor | 33 | 14% |
Researcher | 31 | 13% |
Student > Master | 29 | 12% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 20 | 8% |
Other | 55 | 23% |
Unknown | 32 | 13% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 75 | 31% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 39 | 16% |
Neuroscience | 23 | 10% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 17 | 7% |
Engineering | 7 | 3% |
Other | 39 | 16% |
Unknown | 42 | 17% |