title: The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion.
abstract: It has been established that the recognition of facial expressions integrates contextual information. In this study, we aimed to clarify the influence of contextual odors. The participants were asked to match a target face varying in expression intensity with non-ambiguous expressive faces. Intensity variations in the target faces were designed by morphing expressive faces with neutral faces. In addition, the influence of verbal information was assessed by providing half the participants with the emotion names. Odor cues were manipulated by placing participants in a pleasant (strawberry), aversive (butyric acid), or no-odor control context. The results showed two main effects of the odor context. First, the minimum amount of visual information required to perceive an expression was lowered when the odor context was emotionally congruent: happiness was correctly perceived at lower intensities in the faces displayed in the pleasant odor context, and the same phenomenon occurred for disgust and anger in the aversive odor context. Second, the odor context influenced the false perception of expressions that were not used in target faces, with distinct patterns according to the presence of emotion names. When emotion names were provided, the aversive odor context decreased intrusions for disgust ambiguous faces but increased them for anger. When the emotion names were not provided, this effect did not occur and the pleasant odor context elicited an overall increase in intrusions for negative expressions. We conclude that olfaction plays a role in the way facial expressions are perceived in interaction with other contextual influences such as verbal information.
authors.affiliation: Équipe Éthologie développementale et psychologie cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, UMR 6265 CNRS-UMR 1324 INRA-Université Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leleu
authors.affiliation: Centre de Dépistage et de Prises en Charge des Troubles Psychiatriques d'Origine Génétique, Centre Hospitalier le Vinatier, Bron, France; Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229 CNRS, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Demily
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229 CNRS, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Service Universitaire de Réhabilitation, Centre Hospitalier le Vinatier, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Franck
authors.affiliation: Équipe Éthologie développementale et psychologie cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, UMR 6265 CNRS-UMR 1324 INRA-Université Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.affiliation: Équipe Éthologie développementale et psychologie cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, UMR 6265 CNRS-UMR 1324 INRA-Université Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Benoist
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schaal
authors.affiliation: Équipe Éthologie développementale et psychologie cognitive, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, UMR 6265 CNRS-UMR 1324 INRA-Université Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France; Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Baudouin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult