THE EMOTIONAL POWER OF ODORS: IDENTIFYING THE DIMENSIONS REFERRING TO FEELINGS PRODUCED BY ODORS

Abstract There is broad literature on the emotional effect of odors but, so far, little concern with the precise mechanism underlying the elicitation of emotions via olfactory stimuli. One reason for this neglect might be the lack of answers to a major question that underlie any research on odors and emotions: What exactly are the emotions associated to odors and how are they organised? The major issue addressed in the present paper concerns the nature of the verbal labels that refer to the specific states produced by odors. We conducted a series of studies in order to examine which terms are best suited to describe the feelings associated to odors and autobiographical memories. In Study 1, the relevance of a broad list of candidate affect terms to describe odor-related feelings was examined by two groups of participants with different level of knowledge about odors. In study 2, the most relevant terms retained from study 1 were evaluated with actual odorant samples and the data were submitted to a series of exploratory factor analyses to reduce the set of variables to a smaller set of summary-scales and to get a preliminary sense of the differentiation of affects elicited by odors. The Study 3 replicated Study 2 with a larger and more representative sample of odorant samples and participants. Overall, the findings point to a structure of affective responses to odors that differs from the more traditional taxonomies of emotion such as posited by discrete emotion or dimensional theories and suggest that affective states elicited by odors are structured around few dimensions that clearly reflect the role of olfaction in social interactions, danger prevention and arousal/relaxation sensations

Sub-lethal radiation enhances anti-tumor immunotherapy in a transgenic mouse model of pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND: It is not uncommon to observe circulating tumor antigen-specific T lymphocytes in cancer patients despite a lack of significant infiltration and destruction of their tumors. Thus, an important goal for tumor immunotherapy is to identify ways to modulate in vivo anti-tumor immunity to achieve clinical efficacy. We investigate this proposition in a spontaneous mouse tumor model, Rip1-Tag2. METHODS: Experimental therapies were carried out in two distinctive trial designs, intended to either intervene in the explosive growth of small tumors, or regress bulky end-stage tumors. Rip1-Tag2 mice received a single transfer of splenocytes from Tag-specific, CD4(+) T cell receptor transgenic mice, a single sub-lethal radiation, or a combination therapy in which the lymphocyte transfer was preceded by the sub-lethal radiation. Tumor burden, the extent of lymphocyte infiltration into solid tumors and host survival were used to assess the efficacy of these therapeutic approaches. RESULTS: In either intervention or regression, the transfer of Tag-specific T cells alone did not result in significant lymphocyte infiltration into solid tumors, not did it affect tumor growth or host survival. In contrast, the combination therapy resulted in significant reduction in tumor burden, increase in lymphocyte infiltration into solid tumors, and extension of survival. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that certain types of solid tumors may be intrinsically resistant to infiltration and destruction by tumor-specific T lymphocytes. Our data suggest that such resistance can be disrupted by sub-lethal radiation. The combinatorial approach presented here merits consideration in the design of clinical trials aimed to achieve T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity

When Flexibility Is Stable: Implicit Long-Term Shaping of Olfactory Preferences

Preferences are traditionally assumed to be stable. However, empirical evidence such as preference modulation following choices calls this assumption into question. The evolution of such postchoice preference over long time spans, even when choices have been explicitly forgotten, has so far not been studied. In two experiments, we investigated this question by using a variant of the free choice paradigm: In a first session, participants evaluated the pleasantness of a number of odors. We then formed pairs of similarly rated odors, and asked participants to choose their favorite, for each pair. Participants were then presented with all odors again, and asked for another pleasantness rating. In a second session 1 week later, a third pleasantness rating was obtained, and participants were again asked to choose between the same options. Results suggested postchoice preference modulation immediately and 1 week after choice for both chosen and rejected options, even when choices were not explicitly remembered. A third experiment, using another paradigm, confirmed that choice can have a modulatory impact on preferences, and that this modulation can be long-lasting. Taken together, these findings suggest that although preferences appear to be flexible because they are modulated by choices, this modulation also appears to be stable over time and even without explicit recollection of the choice. These results bring a new argument to the idea that postchoice preference modulation could rely on implicit mechanisms, and are consistent with the recent proposal that cognitive dissonance reduction could to some extent be implicit

‘1-8 interferon inducible gene family': putative colon carcinoma-associated antigens

Db−/−xβ2 microglobulin (β2m) null mice transgenic for a chimeric HLA-A2.1/Db-β2m single chain (HHD mice) are an effective biological tool to evaluate the antitumour cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response of known major histocompatibility-restricted peptide tumour-associated antigens, and to screen for putative unknown novel peptides. We utilised HHD lymphocytes to identify immunodominant epitopes of colon carcinoma overexpressed genes. We screened with HHD-derived lymphocytes over 500 HLA-A2.1-restricted peptides derived from colon carcinoma overexpressed genes. This procedure culminated in the identification of seven immunogenic peptides, three of these were derived from the ‘human 1-8D gene from interferon inducible gene' (1-8D). The 1-8D gene was shown to be overexpressed in fresh tumour samples. The three 1-8D peptides were both antigenic and immunogenic in the HHD mice. The peptides induce cytotoxic T lymphocytes that were able to kill a colon carcinoma cell line HCT/HHD, in vitro and retard its growth in vivo. One of the peptides shared by all the 1-8 gene family primed efficiently normal human cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors. These results highlight the 1-8D gene and its homologues as putative immunodominant tumour-associated antigens of colon carcinoma

Trigeminal Sensations to enhance and enrich flavor perception - Sensory Approaches

Summary: Health, but also personal values and environment, are driving more and more consumers towards sugar, salt, alcohol, fat reduced products and plant-based foods. Yet consumers often do not like these products because of their poor flavor. This creates a need within the food industry to innovate by testing natural sources for novel compounds that show interesting trigeminal or taste effects. Sensory approaches are proposed to screen and assess the performances of compounds eliciting trigeminal sensations as cooling, warm, pungent, tingling, for e.g. Sensory performances of trigeminal compounds are described using different methods. Considering flavor perception as a functional integrated sensory system, these compounds could modulate taste and improve the overall flavor

Perfume memorability: The role of emotions and familiarity

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