Psychology of Fragrance Use: Perception of Individual Odor and Perfume Blends Reveals a Mechanism for Idiosyncratic Effects on Fragrance Choice

Cross-culturally, fragrances are used to modulate body odor, but the psychology of fragrance choice has been largely overlooked. The prevalent view is that fragrances mask an individual's body odor and improve its pleasantness. In two experiments, we found positive effects of perfume on body odor perception. Importantly, however, this was modulated by significant interactions with individual odor donors. Fragrances thus appear to interact with body odor, creating an individually-specific odor mixture. In a third experiment, the odor mixture of an individual's body odor and their preferred perfume was perceived as more pleasant than a blend of the same body odor with a randomly-allocated perfume, even when there was no difference in pleasantness between the perfumes. This indicates that fragrance use extends beyond simple masking effects and that people choose perfumes that interact well with their own odor. Our results provide an explanation for the highly individual nature of perfume choice

The Distribution of Toxoplasma gondii Cysts in the Brain of a Mouse with Latent Toxoplasmosis: Implications for the Behavioral Manipulation Hypothesis

reportedly manipulates rodent behavior to enhance the likelihood of transmission to its definitive cat host. The proximate mechanisms underlying this adaptive manipulation remain largely unclear, though a growing body of evidence suggests that the parasite-entrained dysregulation of dopamine metabolism plays a central role. Paradoxically, the distribution of the parasite in the brain has received only scant attention. at six months of age and examined 18 weeks later. The cysts were distributed throughout the brain and selective tropism of the parasite toward a particular functional system was not observed. Importantly, the cysts were not preferentially associated with the dopaminergic system and absent from the hypothalamic defensive system. The striking interindividual differences in the total parasite load and cyst distribution indicate a probabilistic nature of brain infestation. Still, some brain regions were consistently more infected than others. These included the olfactory bulb, the entorhinal, somatosensory, motor and orbital, frontal association and visual cortices, and, importantly, the hippocampus and the amygdala. By contrast, a consistently low incidence of tissue cysts was recorded in the cerebellum, the pontine nuclei, the caudate putamen and virtually all compact masses of myelinated axons. Numerous perivascular and leptomeningeal infiltrations of inflammatory cells were observed, but they were not associated with intracellular cysts. distribution stems from uneven brain colonization during acute infection and explains numerous behavioral abnormalities observed in the chronically infected rodents. Thus, the parasite can effectively change behavioral phenotype of infected hosts despite the absence of well targeted tropism

Correction: Patil et al. Freeing Aspergillus fumigatus of Polymycovirus Infection Renders It More Resistant to Competition with Pseudomonas aeruginosa Due to Altered Iron-Acquiring Tactics. J. Fungi 2021, 7, 497

In the original publication [...]

Ancestral billingsellides and the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of early rhynchonelliform brachiopods

The relationship of many Cambrian rhynchonelliform brachiopods is poorly understood, with many genera displaying a combination of morphological features that are taxonomically confusing. The study of middle Cambrian–early Tremadocian brachiopods is critical because this interval is sandwiched directly between the two largest radiation phases in the early Palaeozoic and provides raw data for deciphering the events leading up to the explosion of brachiopod genera in the Ordovician. Here we present a parsimony analysis of a wide selection of Cambrian and Ordovician brachiopod genera with a particular focus on the evolution and phylogeny of Billingsellida. The billingselloids were widespread by the late Cambrian and the group was originally thought to represent the ancestral stock of many Ordovician brachiopod lineages. The phylogenetic analyses portray the polytoechioids as derived billingselloids separate from the clitambonitoids that form a sister group. The Gondwanan brachiopod Roanella is interpreted as ancestral to the clitambonitoids within the Billingsellida and is reassigned to Clitambonitoidea within a new monogeneric family, Roanellidae nov. Antigonambonites displays no obvious relationship with the clitambonitoids and should be formally transferred to the polytoechioids. The monogeneric family Chaniellidae exhibits characters reminiscent of members of the polytoechioids and is transferred to the superfamily Polytoechioidea. The recently reappraised clitambonitoid Arctohedra is interpreted as a basal member of the entire order Billingsellida