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Olfactory Cues of Naturally Occurring Systemic Inflammation: A Pilot Study of Seasonal Allergy 
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Stress Research Institute. Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Biological psychology. Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8323-0714
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Number of Authors: 102023 (English)In: Neuroimmunomodulation, ISSN 1021-7401, E-ISSN 1423-0216, Vol. 30, no 1, p. 338-345Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Introduction: In an attempt to avoid contact with infectious individuals, humans likely respond to generalized rather than specific markers of disease. Humans may thus perceive a noninfectious individual as socially less attractive if they look (e.g., have facial discolouration), move (e.g., have a slower walking pace), or sound (e.g., sneeze) sick. This pilot study tested whether humans are averse to the body odour of noninfectious individuals with a low-grade systemic inflammation. Methods: We collected the axillary body odour of individuals with severe seasonal allergy (N = 14) and healthy controls (N = 10) during and outside the allergy season and measured serum levels of two inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-5). Independent participants (N = 67) then sampled and rated these odours on intensity and pleasantness. Results: While individuals with seasonal allergy had nominally more unpleasant and intense body odours during the allergy season, relative to outside the allergy season and to healthy controls, these effects were not significant. When examining immune markers, the change in perceived pleasantness of an individual’s body odour (from out-to-inside pollen season) was significantly related to the change in their interleukin-5 levels but not to tumour necrosis factor-α. Discussion: Our findings tentatively suggest that the human olfactory system could be sensitive to inflammation as present in a noncommunicable condition. Larger replications are required to determine the role of olfaction in the perception of infectious and noninfectious (e.g., chronic diseases) conditions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
S. Karger, 2023. Vol. 30, no 1, p. 338-345
Keywords [en]
olfactory cues of sickness, inflammation, behavioural immune system, body odours, pollen allergy, cytokines
National Category
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-224826DOI: 10.1159/000535047ISI: 001108581200001PubMedID: 37972578Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85181176664OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-224826DiVA, id: diva2:1823032
Note

The project was supported by grants from Hedlunds stiftelse (2010-04-08 [ML]), the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (2010-1103 [ML]), and the Swedish Research Council (2009-5251 [ML], 2016-02742 [MO], 2020-02567 [MO], and 2021-03184 [AT]).

Available from: 2023-12-29 Created: 2023-12-29 Last updated: 2024-11-14Bibliographically approved

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Lasselin, JulieTamm, SandraLekander, Mats

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