Abstract
The perception of putative pheromones or social odors (PPSO) in humans is a widely debated topic because the published results seem ambiguous. Our research aimed to evaluate how cross-modal processing of PPSO and gender voice can affect the behavioral and psychophysiological states of the subject during a listening task with a bodily contact medium, and how these effects could be gender related. Before the experimental session, three embodied media, were exposed to volatilized estratetraenol (Estr), 5α-androst-16-en-3 α-ol (Andr), and Vaseline oil. The experimental session consisted in listening to a story that were transmitted, with a male or female voice, by the communicative medium via a Bluetooth system during a listening task, recorded through 64-active channel electroencephalography (EEG). The sense of co-presence and social presence, elicited by the medium, showed how the established relationship with the medium was gender dependent and modulated by the PPSO. In particular, Andr induced greater responses related to co-presence. The gender of the participants was related to the co-presence desire, where women imagined higher medium co-presence than men. EEG findings seemed to be more responsive to the PPSO–gender voice interaction, than behavioral results. The mismatch between female PPSO and male voice elicited the greatest cortical flow of information. In the case of the Andr–male voice condition, the trained model appeared to assign more relevance to the flow of information to the right frontotemporal regions (involved in odor recognition memory and social behavior). The Estr–male voice condition showed activation of the bilateral frontoparietal network, which is linked to cognitive control, cognitive flexibility, and auditory consciousness. The model appears to distinguish the dissonance condition linked to Andr matched with a female voice: it highlights a flow of information to the right occipital lobe and to the frontal pole. The PPSO could influence the co-presence judgements and EEG response. The results seem suggest that could be an implicit pattern linked to PPSO-related gender differences and gender voice.
Highlights
Recent literature about the olfactory system indicates that olfactory perception plays a sensorial role and has implications on social and affective cognition (Herz and Schooler, 2002)
We evaluated if this effect could be superimposable or implementable to that of the gender voice of the communicative medium, both at the behavioral and the electrophysiological level
We hypothesize that this putative pheromone substance activates cortical areas related to social cognition and attention compared with non-pheromonic odors
Summary
Recent literature about the olfactory system indicates that olfactory perception plays a sensorial role and has implications on social and affective cognition (Herz and Schooler, 2002). Li et al demonstrated that subliminal smells can influence social sympathy judgments and autonomous responses in a consistent manner, and that the behavioral effects on social preferences emerge only when odor information is small enough to prevent top-down regulation Studies like these have shown that the act of perceiving odors is not merely for its own interest but implies numerous other modifications of a different nature that cross, obviously, physiological processes (Wacker and Ludwig, 2012). Interesting research has shown that the smells of the human body can provide important information at the level of social signals (Pause, 2012) This has a peculiar character if we think that social communication could be effectively associated with a very important function given by the result of an underlying process of chemosensory perception in humans (Stevenson, 2009). The effects of physical contact are peculiar in transmitting emotions and reducing panic (Gallace and Spence, 2010)
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