Abstract
The current study is the first to examine the central nervous processing of aggression chemosignals within men and women by means of chemosensory event-related potential (CSERP) analysis. Axillary sweat was collected from 17 men and 17 women participating in a competitive computer game (aggression condition) and playing a construction game (control condition). Sweat samples were pooled with reference to donor gender and condition, and presented to 23 men and 25 women via a constant flow olfactometer. Ongoing electroencephalogram was recorded from 61 scalp locations, CSERPs (P2, P3-1, P3-2) were analysed and neuronal sources calculated (low-resolution electromagnetic tomography, LORETA). Women, especially, showed larger P3-1 and P3-2 amplitudes in response to male as compared with female aggression signals (all p values < 0.01). The peak activation of this effect was related to activity within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 8). As male aggression commonly targets physical harm, the competence of the human brain to sensitively detect male aggression signals is considered to be highly adaptive. The detection of male aggression signals seems to be of higher importance for women than for men. It is suggested that the processing of male aggression signals in women induces an immediate response selection.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Olfactory communication in humans’.
Highlights
One core function of emotions in social animals is the communication of survival-related behavioural adaptations between conspecifics through social signals [1]
The current study aimed to investigate the central nervous processing of aggression chemosignals
In order to ensure sustained attention throughout EEG recording in spite of the relatively long inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs), the participants were further presented with a task during which they had to assign a colour to the odour they just had perceived (3 s)
Summary
One core function of emotions in social animals is the communication of survival-related behavioural adaptations between conspecifics through social signals [1]. In order to ensure sustained attention throughout EEG recording in spite of the relatively long inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs), the participants were further presented with a task during which they had to assign a colour to the odour they just had perceived (3 s). Odour intensity and the attribution of the donors’ gender were analysed by means of three-way mixed-factors ANOVAs, including the within-subjects factors Emotion (EMO; aggression sweat sample, control sweat sample), Donors’ Gender (DG; male sweat sample, female sweat sample) and the betweensubjects factor Participants’ Gender: (PG; men, women). In order to investigate whether participants could identify the emotional content of the sweat samples, the suspected emotions of the donors were analysed by means of a two-way mixed-factors ANOVA separately for each sweat sample, including the within-subjects factor Assessed Emotion (anger, fear and happiness) and the betweensubjects factor PG. LORETA uses a three-shell spherical head model, co-registered to the Talairach anatomical brain atlas [36]
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