Abstract
BackgroundDue to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes. Furthermore, it has been shown that emotional states can influence various non-emotional cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning. However, the link between emotional and cognitive processes is still not fully understood. The present study used the olfactory pathway to induce a negative emotional state in humans to investigate its effect on inhibitory control performance in a standard, single-trial manual Stroop colour-word interference task. An unpleasant (H2S) and an emotionally neutral (Eugenol) odorant were presented in two separate experimental runs, both in blocks alternating with ambient air, to 25 healthy volunteers, while they performed the cognitive task.ResultsPresentation of the unpleasant odorant reduced Stroop interference by reducing the reaction times for incongruent stimuli, while the presentation of the neutral odorant had no effect on task performance.ConclusionsThe odour-induced negative emotional state appears to facilitate cognitive processing in the task used in the present study, possibly by increasing the amount of cognitive control that is being exerted. This stands in contrast to other findings that showed impaired cognitive performance under odour-induced negative emotional states, but is consistent with models of mood-congruent processing.
Highlights
Due to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes
Positive emotional states have been shown to increase Stroop interference [2]. It remains unknown whether negative emotional states can influence performance on the Stroop task in general, and if that holds for emotions that
Odour ratings The ratings of intensity, valence, and arousal of the two odours were submitted to separate repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) with odour (Eugenol vs. H2S) and rating time as within-subject factors and order of odour presentation as between subject factor
Summary
Due to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes. It has been shown that emotional states can influence various nonemotional cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning. The present study used the olfactory pathway to induce a negative emotional state in humans to investigate its effect on inhibitory control performance in a standard, single-trial manual Stroop colour-word interference task. The olfactory system is an integral part of the paralimbic system; smell can directly modulate emotions and can have profound effects on human cognition and behaviour [1]. Odours may be effectively applied to study the interaction of emotion and cognition. It remains unknown whether negative emotional states can influence performance on the Stroop task in general, and if that holds for emotions that
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