Mid-Luteal Olfactory Abilities Reveal Healthy Women’s Emotional and Cognitive Functions

Abstract

Ovarian hormones modulate women’s physical and psychological states periodically. Although the olfactory function is increasingly recognized as a reflection of physical and mental health conditions in the clinic, the role of olfaction in emotional and cognitive functions for healthy individuals has yet to be elucidated, especially when taking the menstrual cycle into account. We carried out a comprehensive investigation to explore whether the menstrual cycle could modulate women’s olfactory function and whether healthy women’s emotional symptoms and behavioral impulsivity could be characterized by their olfactory abilities at a specific menstrual cycle stage. Twenty-nine healthy young women were evaluated repeatedly using a standard olfactory test battery during the late follicular and mid-luteal phases. Their emotional symptoms and behavioral impulsivity were separately quantified via psychometric scales and a stop-signal task. We observed enhanced olfactory discrimination performance during the mid-luteal phase than the late follicular phase. We also found that women’s better olfactory discrimination and worse olfactory threshold in the mid-luteal phase predicted fewer individual emotional symptoms and lower behavioral impulsivity, respectively. These relationships were nonetheless absent in the late follicular phase. Our data extend previous clinical observations of the coexistence of olfactory deficits and neuropsychiatric disorders, providing new insights into the significance of olfaction and ovarian hormones for emotional and cognitive functions.

Effect of virtual reality-based exercise and physical exercise on adolescents with overweight and obesity: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…Brain health-related parameters will include the following: (1) brain structure using anatomical T1-weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging; (2) cognitive assessment36–38 using resting-state fMRI, and with n-back and flanker tasks on behavioural experiments and task-based fMRI; (3) food preference evaluation using a Go/No-go task on behavioural experiments and task-based fMRI39 and scales; and (4) olfaction assessment using a set of olfactory tests40 that can assess olfactory threshold, identification and discrimination function. These olfactory tests were created by the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy Sciences.…”

“…(3) food preference evaluation using a Go/No-go task on behavioural experiments and task-based fMRI 39 and scales; and (4) olfaction assessment using a set of olfactory tests 40 that can assess olfactory threshold, identification and discrimination function. These olfactory tests were created by the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy Sciences.…”

Male Body Odor Affects Emotional State, LH and Cortisol Secretion in Women of Different Age Groups

“…It was shown that idiopathic repeated pregnancy loss was associated with altered olfactory responses to body odor [7]. At the same time, hormone changes across the women's menstrual cycle may lead to changes in perception of chemical signals or other odors and hormonal responses to these cues [10,11].…”