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Chemical Senses
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Exclusive journal for research papers covering taste, smell and all aspects of chemoreception; supported by ECRO, ACHEMS and JASTS.
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Basic Emotions Evoked by Eugenol Odor Differ According to the Dental Experience.
Chem. Senses 24: 327-335, 1999
by O. Robin, O. Alaoui-Ismaili1, A. Dittmar and E. Vernet-Maury1
Abstract
Subjective individual experiences seem to indicate that odors may form strong
connections with memories, especially those charged with emotional significance.
In the dental field, this could be the case with the odorant eugenol, responsible
for the typical clinging odor impregnating the dental office. The odor of eugenol
could evoke memories of unpleasant dental experiences and, therefore, negative
feelings such as anxiety and fear, since eugenates (cements containing eugenol)
are used in potentially painful restorative dentistry. This hypothesis was
tested by evaluating the emotional impact of the odor of eugenol through
autonomic nervous system (ANS) analysis. The simultaneous variations of six
ANS parameters (two electrodermal, two thermovascular and two cardiorespiratory),
induced by the inhalation of this odorant, were recorded on volunteer subjects.
Vanillin (a pleasant odorant) and propionic acid (an unpleasant one) served as
controls. After the experiment, subjects were asked to rate the pleasantness
versus unpleasantness of each odorant on an 11-point hedonic scale. The patterns
of autonomic responses, obtained for each odorant and each subject,
were transcribed into one of the six basic emotions defined by Ekman et al.
(happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, anger and disgust).
Results were compared between two groups of subjects divided according to
their dental experience (fearful and non-fearful dental care subjects)
and showed significant differences only for eugenol. This odorant was
rated as pleasant by non-fearful dental subjects but unpleasant by
fearful dental subjects. The evoked autonomic responses were mainly
associated with positive basic emotions (happiness and surprise)
in non-fearful dental subjects and with negative basic emotions
(fear, anger, disgust) in fearful dental subjects. These results
suggest that eugenol can be responsible for different emotional
states depending on the subjects' dental experience, which seems
to confirm the potential role of odors as elicitors of emotional memories. This study also supports the possible influence of the ambient odor impregnating
the dental office, strengthening a negative conditioning toward dental care in some
anxious patients.
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