Presentation Details
| Assessing Olfactory Modulation of Visual Stimulus Processing as a Function of Trait Anxiety Mary Clare Koebel1, Nicole Cash1, Christopher Sege1, Lisa M.McTeague1, 2, Bernadette M.Cortese1. 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA.2Ralph H.Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Charleston, SC, USA |
Abstract
Brain imaging studies demonstrate the ability of odors to modulate neural responses to emotional visual cues, an effect that appears to be further influenced by individual differences in stress and anxiety. Converging lines of evidence indicate that anxious children and adults have a particularly heightened sensitivity to the smoke-like odor of guaiacol (GUA). The current study utilized scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG)-derived late positive potential (LPP) to assess odor modulation of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral faces and scenes. Ten (6F/4M), normosmic (TDIM±SD=32.8±4.5), adults (ageM±SD=45.3±10.1) were fitted with a 32-channel EEG system and underwent 2 trials of emotional stimulus processing. Trials consisted of 36 odor-picture blocks with images of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant faces or scenes (counterbalanced by trial) and odors of GUA, phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA), and odorless air, with each odor-image type paired 4 times. Consistent with previous studies on emotional visual processing, the mean amplitude of the LPP during the odorless condition was significantly elevated in response to unpleasant, compared to neutral and pleasant, images (F(2,32)=3.62, p=.041). When participants were grouped by low (n=5, M±SD=26.4±2.9) and elevated (n=5, M±SD=40.0±7.8) trait anxiety, a significant image x odor x trait anxiety interaction was noted (F(2,32)=4.63, p=.017). GUA, but not PEA, increased the mean LPP amplitude in response to pleasant images in only those with elevated anxiety, reaching a level comparable to that elicited by the unpleasant images during the odorless control condition. These findings expand upon previous work highlighting the top-down role of trait anxiety, in combination with olfactory processing, to influence the visual perception of emotional stimuli.
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