Abstract
IntroductionWithholding uninitiated actions and cancelling ongoing ones are two main components of response inhibition, a key element of the executive control. Inhibitory performance is sensitive to emotional contexts elicited by subliminal and supraliminal visual material. However, whether stimuli from other sensory modalities, such as odours, would equally modulate response inhibition remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess the effect of task-irrelevant odours as a function of their valence and threshold on both action withholding and action cancellation of reach-to-press movements.MethodThirty-two healthy participants performed a Go/No-Go task that included the presentation of pleasant (orange) and unpleasant (trimethyloxazole) odour primes at supra- and sub-threshold levels; clean air was included as a control condition. The reach-to-press responses were composed of an initial release phase and a subsequent reaching phase.ResultsOnly the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. control) odour impaired action withholding. Moreover, the pleasant (vs. control) odour—presented at both sub- and supra-threshold levels—elicited more accurate Go responses, whereas the sub- and supra-threshold pleasant and unpleasant (vs. control) odours triggered faster responses in the release phase. Additionally, only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs. unpleasant) odour impaired action cancellation in the reaching phase. Furthermore, reaching responses were slower following the supra-threshold unpleasant (vs. control) odour.ConclusionsOur findings extend the sparse literature on the impact of odour stimuli on goal-directed behaviour, highlighting the role of both odour valence and threshold in the modulation of response inhibition.ImplicationsDetermining the mechanisms by which odour stimuli modulate response inhibition lays the foundations for research on odour-triggered disinhibition.
Highlights
Withholding uninitiated actions and cancelling ongoing ones are two main components of response inhibition, a key element of the executive control
We examined the effect of pleasant and unpleasant odour primes presented at sub-threshold and supra-threshold levels on two forms of motor response inhibition—action withholding and action cancellation—in a modified version of the Go/ No-Go task in which participants responded with an articulated reach-to-press action
In line with our hypotheses, for the initial release phase of the motor response, we found that the participants had more difficulties refraining from responding when a supra-threshold pleasant odour prime preceded a No-Go target as compared to the control odour, whereas supra-threshold unpleasant odours and subliminal odours did not have a significant effect on action withholding
Summary
Withholding uninitiated actions and cancelling ongoing ones are two main components of response inhibition, a key element of the executive control. Only the supra-threshold pleasant (vs unpleasant) odour impaired action cancellation in the reaching phase. Of relevance to the present study, inhibitory processes can be at work even when actions are triggered at the subliminal level by sensory inputs and emotionally laden stimuli (Parkinson et al 2017). In this respect, a number of studies have shown that response inhibition can be triggered by subliminal (nonemotional) visual stimuli in masked prime paradigms
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