Anhedonia, the loss or decline of the ability to enjoy pleasure, is an important clinical characteristic of schizophrenia. Schizotypal traits refer to the appearance of subclinical symptoms of schizophrenia across normal people. Still, few studies have investigated chemosensory anhedonia in schizophrenia patients and schizotypy individuals. Seventyone schizophrenia patients (SCZ), 162 schizotypy individuals (SCT) as selected by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and 182 healthy controls (HC) participated in our study. We used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to measure the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia patients. All participants completed the Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS), which was used to assess participants' smell and taste hedonic capacities. We found that the three groups differed in chemosensory anhedonia. The SCZ group presented more severe chemosensory anhedonia than the SCT group, and the SCT group presented more severe chemosensory anhedonia than the HC group. We also found that chemosensory hedonic capacity was negatively correlated with negative schizotypal traits in the SCT group. Our results suggested that chemosensory anhedonia is an important characteristic of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

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Background: Atypical olfactory function in autism spectrum disorder has been documented in numerous studies, but little is known about its occurrence in individuals with autistic traits. The aim of the current study was to investigate odor identification ability and olfactory hedonic capacity in children with autistic traits. Methods: The study included 91 children in a high autistic trait group, and 128 children in a low autistic trait group, as determined based on Short Autism Spectrum Quotient scores. The Universal Sniff (U-Sniff) test was used to measure odor identification ability and olfactory hedonic capacity. Olfactory hedonic capacity was also measured using the child’s version of the Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS-C). Results: Children in the high autistic trait group exhibited significantly impaired odor identification and olfactory hedonic capacity measured by CPS-C than those in the low autistic trait group, but there was no significant difference in olfactory hedonic capacity measured by U-Sniff between the two groups. Impaired odor identification was significantly correlated with olfactory hedonic capacity measured by CPS-C. Limitations: Only a self-reporting questionnaire was used to screen children for autistic trait. The combination of a self-reporting scale and diagnosis by a clinical expert would result in more accurate screening of individuals for autistic trait.Conclusions: Children with high autistic trait exhibited poorer odor identification ability and olfactory trait hedonic capacity than children without high autistic trait. These results pertaining to odor identification and olfactory hedonic capacity may be the endophenotypic markers for autism spectrum disorder.

Atypical olfactory function in autism spectrum disorder has been documented in numerous studies, but little is known about its occurrence in individuals with autistic traits. The aim of the current study was to investigate odor identification ability and olfactory hedonic capacity in children with autistic traits. We recruited 415 children and measured their autistic traits by the Short Autism Spectrum Quotient. The Universal Sniff (U‐Sniff) test was used to measure odor identification ability and olfactory hedonic capacity. Olfactory hedonic capacity was also measured using the children's version of the Chemosensory Pleasure Scale (CPS‐C). Odor identification and olfactory hedonic capacity measured by CPS‐C were negatively correlated with autistic traits. Children with higher autistic traits exhibited poorer odor identification ability and olfactory trait hedonic capacity measured by CPS‐C but intact olfactory state hedonic capacity measured by odor pleasantness. These results pertaining to odor identification and olfactory hedonic capacity may be the endophenotypic markers for autism spectrum disorder. Practical Applications Our study extends the knowledge on children with high autistic traits and provides a new perspective on olfactory identification ability and olfactory hedonic capacity in children with high autistic traits. In addition, our findings suggest olfactory testing may provide a new approach for detecting and understanding autism.