title: Individual Differences in Verbal and Non-Verbal Affective Responses to Smells: Influence of Odor Label Across Cultures.
abstract: Olfactory perception is highly variable from one person to another, as a function of individual and contextual factors. Here, we investigated the influence of 2 important factors of variation: culture and semantic information. More specifically, we tested whether cultural-specific knowledge and presence versus absence of odor names modulate odor perception, by measuring these effects in 2 populations differing in cultural background but not in language. Participants from France and Quebec, Canada, smelled 4 culture-specific and 2 non-specific odorants in 2 conditions: first without label, then with label. Their ratings of pleasantness, familiarity, edibility, and intensity were collected as well as their psychophysiological and olfactomotor responses. The results revealed significant effects of culture and semantic information, both at the verbal and non-verbal level. They also provided evidence that availability of semantic information reduced cultural differences. Semantic information had a unifying action on olfactory perception that overrode the influence of cultural background.
authors.affiliation: Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 50 avenue Tony Garnier, 69366 Lyon Cedex 07, France and camille.ferdenzi@inserm.fr.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferdenzi
authors.affiliation: Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 50 avenue Tony Garnier, 69366 Lyon Cedex 07, France and.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Joussain
authors.affiliation: Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 50 avenue Tony Garnier, 69366 Lyon Cedex 07, France and.
authors.forename: Bérengère
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Digard
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, 3801 Rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada.
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Luneau
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, 3801 Rue University, Montréal, QC H3A 2B4, Canada.
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Djordjevic
authors.affiliation: Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 50 avenue Tony Garnier, 69366 Lyon Cedex 07, France and.
authors.forename: Moustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bensafi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D011792:Quebec; D012660:Semantics; D012903:Smell; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: affect; culture; individual variation; olfaction; olfactomotor response; physiological response