title: Gender and handedness effects on hedonicity of laterally presented odours.
abstract: The effect of lateral presentation of odours on the hedonic evaluation is reported using a range of different substances. The hypothesis that hedonic evaluation of odours depends on stimulated nostril and on gender and handedness is tested using psychophysical methodology. A total of 51 untrained subjects evaluated 16 substances with different hedonic valences. Each odour substance was presented to the subjects four times, twice at each nostril using a balanced experimental design. Effects of gender and handedness, and interactions, are observed. Some parallels with the perception of visual emotional stimuli are suggested. Hedonic processing of odour stimuli is concluded to be an emotional, rather than an analytical task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dairy and Food Science, Sensory Science Group, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Rolighedsvej 30, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. gbd@kvl.dk
authors.forename: Garmt B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Dijksterhuis
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.forename: Wender L P
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Bredie
authors.forename: Gudny
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Magni
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martens
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods; D012737:Sex Factors; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*