Sex Differences in Odor Hedonic Perception: An Overview

Bontempi, Charlotte; Jacquot, Laurence; Brand, Gérard

doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.764520

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 111 publications

(119 reference statements)

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“…Indeed, no difference in IDTs and OHRs was observed between men and women, knowing that the sex ratio was unbalanced in the sample. Because of the well-established sex differences in human odor sensitivity and odor hedonic perception 18 , 57 , this effect could be thoroughly examined in future research with a larger sample composed of a homogenous number of men and women. Likewise, no significant difference in hunger level was found between each odor session and participants hunger level had no influence on detection thresholds and OHRs at detection threshold and pure solution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, several studies showed a great flexibility of odor hedonic perception. Thus, differences were observed in relation to individual characteristics such as age 10 – 12 , sex 13 – 18 , the experience towards odorants 19 and physiological state 20 , 21 , diseases such as depressive disorders 22 , schizophrenia 23 , 24 or Parkinson’s disease 25 , 26 and recently with SARS-CoV-2 27 . Odor hedonic perception also appeared to depend on repeated exposures 28 , 29 , verbal influence 30 , 31 , or stimulus presentation pathway (orthonasal vs. retronasal) 32 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

Bontempi

Jacquot

Brand

2022

Sci Rep

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Odor hedonic perception (pleasant/unpleasant character) is considered as the first and one of the most prominent dimensions in olfaction and is known to depend on several parameters. Among them, the relation between the odorant concentration and the hedonic estimation has been widely studied. However, few studies have considered odor hedonic ratings (OHR) in relation to individual detection thresholds (IDT). Thus, the aim of this study was to determine olfactory detection thresholds and to describe hedonic rating variations from individual thresholds to higher concentrations. IDT were performed for two pleasant (apple and jasmine) and two unpleasant (durian and trimethylamine) odorant stimuli. The experimenter presented one by one in a randomized order, the different odorant concentrations above IDT. Participants rated odor hedonic valence of these stimuli on a visual analog scale. Results showed, except for trimethylamine, the same relationship between hedonic ratings and stimulus concentration, i.e., an increase of pleasantness (apple and jasmine)/unpleasantness (durian) ratings at low and middle concentrations followed by a plateau at high concentrations. Correlations between OHR and concentrations as well as between OHR and threshold steps were always significant. Moreover, comparisons between both conditions showed that the correlation coefficient was significantly higher for trimethylamine (and a trend for apple) when IDTs were considered, while no difference was found for jasmine and durian. Overall, results suggested that the relationship between OHR and IDT is odor specific. These findings contribute to explain the large variability of the hedonic tone (i.e., weakly vs. very pleasant, weakly vs. very unpleasant) at specific concentration in the general population and could serve future research in this field (e.g., olfactory preferences in nutrition studies, anhedonia in psychiatric disorders…).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

Bontempi

Jacquot

Brand

2022

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…This conclusion is not consistent across other studies 39,40 ; however, the predominant view is that women have a greater pain responsiveness for most pain modalities 41 . This is not unique to pain, as there is evidence that women are often more perceptive across multiple sensory domains 23 , exhibiting a greater detection and discrimination sensitivity to tactile 42 , olfactory 43 , and visual stimuli 44 . Our results are also in line with the clinical reality which has shown that gender differences exists with respect to pain tolerance and thresholds, and that there is a higher prevalence of chronic pain conditions for females 41,45,46 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to make calibration less painful -- a proposition of an automatic, reliable and time-efficient procedure.

Świder

Bruña

Moratti

2023

Preprint

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In neurophysiological pain studies, multiple types of calibration methods are used to quantify the individual pain sensation stimuli. However, such studies often lack calibration procedure implementation, have a vague protocol description, do not provide data quality quantification, and omit required control for gender pain differences. All this hampers study repetition and interexperimental comparisons. Moreover, typical calibration procedures require a high number of stimulations which may cause participants’ discomfort and stimuli habituation. To overcome those shortcomings, we present an automatic staircase pain calibration method for A-delta-specific stimulation adjusted to the magnetoencephalography environment. We provide an in-depth data analysis of the collected self-reports from seventy healthy volunteers (37 males) and propose a method based on a dynamic truncated linear regression model (tLRM). We compare its estimates for the sensation (t), and pain (T) thresholds, as well as for the mid-pain stimulation (MP), with those calculated using a traditional threshold method and standard linear regression models. Compared to the other threshold methods, tLRM exhibits higher R2 and requires 36% fewer stimuli application and has significantly higher t and lower T and MP intensities. Regarding sex differences, both lower t and T were found for females compared to males, regardless of the calibration method. The proposed tLRM method quantifies the quality of the calibration procedure, minimizes its duration and invasiveness, as well as provides validation of linearity between stimuli intensity and subjective scores, making it an enabling technique for further studies. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of control for gender in pain studies.

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“…This is not unique only to pain, as there is evidence that women are often more perceptive than men across multiple sensory domains (Hashmi and Davis, 2014). Women were shown to have a greater detection and discrimination sensitivity than men to tactile (Boles and Givens, 2011), olfactory (Bontempi et al, 2021), and visual stimuli (Shaqiri et al, 2018). Our results are also in line with the clinical reality which has shown that gender differences exists with respect to pain tolerance and thresholds, and that there is a higher prevalence of chronic pain conditions for females (Meints et al, 2018; Sorge and Totsch, 2017; Templeton, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to make calibration less painful – a proposition of an automatic, reliable and time-efficient procedure

Świder

Bruña

Moratti

2022

Preprint

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Background: The description of the calibration in pain studies is scarce. This study provides an in-depth analysis and proposes an automatic pain-threshold calibration that quantifies its correctness, minimizes its duration and invasiveness, and considers validation of linearity between stimuli intensity and Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) values. Methods: 70 healthy volunteers (37 males) underwent a staircase calibration method adjusted for A-delta specific intraepidermal electrical stimulation. The sensation (t) and pain thresholds (T) intensities were calculated using: the traditional threshold method (TM), a linear regression model (LRM), and two variants of a proposed truncated LRM (tLRM). The tLRM analyses data up to an optimal point, chosen according to the maximum goodness-of-fit value (R2). The optimal value of R2 and the convergence based on the regression line gradient formed the base for rejection criteria of failed procedure. Then, we compared the different methods for thresholds assessment as well as mid-painful stimulation (MP), equivalent to 1.5*T or NRS equal to 8, using repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Four participants were rejected according to our criteria. tLRM methods exhibit higher R2 than LRM with 36% less stimuli application. Compared to other methods, tLRM result in significantly higher t and lower T and MP intensities. Last, significantly lower t and T were found for female compared to men, regardless of the calibration method. Conclusions: The proposed method of calibration reduces the number of stimuli delivered and can be easily adapted to other simulation modalities. However, future investigation is recommended using adaptive LRM fitting and verification of reliability.

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Sex Differences in Odor Hedonic Perception: An Overview

Cited by 15 publications

References 111 publications

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

How to make calibration less painful -- a proposition of an automatic, reliable and time-efficient procedure.

How to make calibration less painful – a proposition of an automatic, reliable and time-efficient procedure

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