Comparing fear and anxiety chemosignals: Do they modulate facial muscle activity and facilitate identifying facial expressions?

N. Gomes, B.M. Pause, M.A.M. Smeets, G.R. Semin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Fear and anxiety are the most frequently studied emotional states in chemosignal research. Despite differences between these two emotional states, findings from research using fear and anxiety body odors (BOs) are often treated as part of a similar phenomenon. In this article, we examine possible similarities and differences between participants exposed to fear and anxiety BOs on 2 dependent variables commonly used in chemosignals' research: (1) the activation of facial muscles in displays of fear expressions (i.e. the medial frontalis and the corrugator supercilii); and (2) the time required to discriminate between negative emotional expressions (fear, anger, and disgust) and neutral ones. Our results show that fear (vs. rest) and anxiety (vs. exercise) BOs activate the medial frontalis, suggesting that both have a similar impact on receivers' facial muscles. However, we could not replicate previous findings regarding the influence of fear BOs in discriminating negative emotional faces from neutral ones. Two additional replication attempts failed to replicate the earlier results, indicating that the results reported in the literature with this specific paradigm should be interpreted cautiously. Suggestions for future research examining possible differences between fear and anxiety BOs are advanced.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberbjad016
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalChemical Senses
Volume48
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 May 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Funding

GRS and NG were supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 Program [grant agreement no. 824153 of the project “POTION-Promoting Social Interaction through Emotional Body Odors”]. We also gratefully acknowledge funding from the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (UID/04810/2020).

FundersFunder number
European Union Horizon 2020 program824153
Fundação para a Ciência e a TecnologiaUID/04810/2020

    Keywords

    • anxiety
    • body odors
    • chemosensory communication
    • emotion discrimination
    • facial electromyography
    • fear

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