Presentation Details
| From Cage to Lab to Clinic: Treating a Human Psychiatric Condition using a Social Chemosignal First Identified in Mice Juna Khatib1, Tali Weiss1, Shani Agron1, Aharon Weissbrod1, Yair Bar-Haim2, Noam Sobel1. 1Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.2Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel |
Abstract
Hexadecanal (HEX) may be a conserved mammalian-wide social chemosignal (Klein et al., 2015; Hoppe et al., 2006). In humans, HEX reduces reactive aggression and startle in men (Mishor et al., 2021; Endevelt-Shapira et al., 2018). To test the hypothesis that HEX impacts autonomic physiology, 55 adults (31 women) completed three counterbalanced sessions on separate days under HEX (in an odor-masking carrier), lavender, and carrier alone. During each session, participants viewed a neutral film while receiving 20 acoustic probes. Eyeblink EMG, electrodermal activity (EDA), ECG, and emotion ratings were recorded. Lavender was rated as substantially more pleasant, intense, and familiar than both HEX and control (all Holm-corrected p<10⁻⁹), whereas HEX differed only weakly from control, confirming its perceptual subtlety. Despite this, HEX selectively altered autonomic physiology. In women, HEX significantly reduced startle magnitude and EDA responses relative to control (both FDR-corrected p<.03), consistent with reduced sympathetic reactivity. In men, HEX did not alter startle or EDA but produced a marked decrease in tonic heart rate together with increases in heart-rate variability (RMSSD and pNN50; all FDR-corrected p<.05), indicating enhanced parasympathetic dominance. Subjectively, HEX selectively increased feelings of safety in men (FDR-corrected p=.031). Given these results in lab, we hypothesized that HEX may contribute to the psychotherapeutic process in treatment of post-traumatic stress-disorder. In a randomly-assigned double-blind clinical study, we diffused either HEX or control (blinded as A & B) into the clinic during therapy. Analysis of the initial 10 patients implies a significant difference in clinical outcome, but we will not know which is HEX until planned unblinding at n=40.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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