The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion.
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. Intensit...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
|
Series: | PLoS ONE |
Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4577100?pdf=render |
id |
doaj-f8067a1ef4384c55af19fae1c11f2bf0 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-f8067a1ef4384c55af19fae1c11f2bf02020-11-24T21:43:48ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01109e013865610.1371/journal.pone.0138656The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion.Arnaud LeleuCaroline DemilyNicolas FranckKarine DurandBenoist SchaalJean-Yves BaudouinIt 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.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4577100?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Arnaud Leleu Caroline Demily Nicolas Franck Karine Durand Benoist Schaal Jean-Yves Baudouin |
spellingShingle |
Arnaud Leleu Caroline Demily Nicolas Franck Karine Durand Benoist Schaal Jean-Yves Baudouin The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Arnaud Leleu Caroline Demily Nicolas Franck Karine Durand Benoist Schaal Jean-Yves Baudouin |
author_sort |
Arnaud Leleu |
title |
The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. |
title_short |
The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. |
title_full |
The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. |
title_fullStr |
The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Odor Context Facilitates the Perception of Low-Intensity Facial Expressions of Emotion. |
title_sort |
odor context facilitates the perception of low-intensity facial expressions of emotion. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2015-01-01 |
description |
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. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4577100?pdf=render |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT arnaudleleu theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT carolinedemily theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT nicolasfranck theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT karinedurand theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT benoistschaal theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT jeanyvesbaudouin theodorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT arnaudleleu odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT carolinedemily odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT nicolasfranck odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT karinedurand odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT benoistschaal odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion AT jeanyvesbaudouin odorcontextfacilitatestheperceptionoflowintensityfacialexpressionsofemotion |
_version_ |
1725911958074425344 |