15:30 - 17:00
Thu-P1
Planck Lobby & Meitner Hall
Influence of stress chemosignals on empathy and emotion recognition in depressed individuals and healthy controls
Thu-P1-007
Presented by: Annkatrin Wunder*
Annkatrin Wunder* 1, Janina Ludwig* 1, Sally Arnhardt 1, Tobias Härtl 3, Leo Schwinn 5, Deepak Charles Chellapandian 1, Elisabeth Weinmair 2, Christiane Mühle 1, Norbert Thürauf 1, Johannes Kornhuber 1, Nicolas Rohleder 2, Helene Loos 3, 4, Jessica Freiherr 1, 4
1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany, 2 Chair of Health Psychology, Departement of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Nägelsbachstrasse 49a, 91052 Erlangen, Germany , 3 Chair of Aroma and Smell Research, Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Henkestrasse 9, 91054 Erlangen, Germany, 4 Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV), Sensory Analytics and Technologies, Giggenhauser Str. 35, 85354 Freising, Germany, 5 Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab, Department Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Carl-Thiersch-Strasse 2b, 91052 Erlangen, Germany
Human body odors contain various chemosignals that play an important role in our non-verbal communication regarding health status, genetic identity, immune system, fitness and emotional state. Studies on human chemosignalling in individuals with psychiatric diseases are scarce, but it has been indicated that patients with depression show alterations regarding smell perception and emotion recognition. In the current project, we investigated emotional stress behavior and the influence of chemosignals in axillary sweat on other individuals. For this purpose, chemosensory cues from Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a friendly version of TSST were obtained in 39 healthy participants. Those chemosignals and an odor-free blank sample (cotton pad) were used to stimulate another group of healthy participants (n = 40) and patients with depression (n = 37). The various stimuli were examined regarding their influence on subjective feelings of stress and empathic reactions. We were able to show that depressed individuals improve their ability to assess grief emotions when in contact with stress chemosignals. These influences on emotion processing were observed particularly for male stress sweat donors or a high donor stress level. The results implicate, that stress chemosignals subconsciously sharpen the senses of patients with depression, leading to a better emotion assessment and therefore an improved ability to empathize especially for emotions heightened by this psychiatric disease. Healthy individuals remained unaffected in their recognition of grief. Knowledge of the influence of human chemosignals on processing emotional cues could be crucial for a better understanding of the psychopathology behind depression and help develop new treatment options.