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Cited by 34Olfactory and Sensory Function StudiesTactile and Sensory InteractionsFace Recognition and Perception

Enhanced Chemosensory Detection of Negative Emotions in Congenital Blindness

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Iversen, Katrine D., Ptito, Maurice, Møller, Per, Kupers, Ron·2015·Neural Plasticity
DOI 10.1155/2015/469750PMC PMC4386700
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Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that congenitally blind individuals develop superior sensory abilities in order to compensate for their lack of vision. Substantial research has been done on somatosensory and auditory sensory information processing of the blind. However, relatively little information is available about compensatory plasticity in the olfactory domain. Although previous studies indicate that blind individuals have superior olfactory abilities, no studies so far have investigated their sense of smell in relation to social and affective communication. The current study compares congenitally blind and normal sighted individuals in their ability to discriminate and identify emotions from body odours. A group of 14 congenitally blind and 14 age- and sex-matched sighted control subjects participated in the study. We compared participants’ abilities to detect and identify by smelling sweat from donors who had been watching excerpts from emotional movies showing amusement, fear, disgust, or sexual arousal. Our results show that congenitally blind subjects outperformed sighted controls in identifying fear from male donors. In addition, there was a strong tendency that blind individuals were also better in detecting disgust. Our findings reveal that congenitally blind individuals are better at identifying ecologically important emotions and provide new insights into the mechanisms of social and affective communication in blindness.

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  • Data on congenitally blinds individuals demonstrate an increased ability of these subjects, as compared to controls, to recognize chemosignals related to fear and disgust.

    “Data on congenitally blinds individuals demonstrate an increased ability of these subjects, as compared to controls, to recognize chemosignals related to fear and disgust; on the other hand, blind subjects failed in identifying amusement and sexual body odors (Iversen et al., 2015).”

    From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Iversen et al., 2015

    Results §3.4 reports that congenitally blind participants identified fear and disgust above chance, while sighted controls were at chance for both. The between-group advantage was statistically significant only for fear in male sweat samples; the advantage for disgust was a tendency, so the claim overstates the evidence for a general increase in recognizing both emotions. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Blind subjects failed in identifying amusement and sexual body odors.

    “Data on congenitally blinds individuals demonstrate an increased ability of these subjects, as compared to controls, to recognize chemosignals related to fear and disgust; on the other hand, blind subjects failed in identifying amusement and sexual body odors (Iversen et al., 2015).”

    From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Iversen et al., 2015

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Iversen, K. D., Ptito, M., Møller, P., & Kupers, R.
Affiliations
University of Copenhagen (DK)
Corresponding author
Kupers, Ron
ORCID
Venue
Neural Plasticity
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015
Volume
2015
Pages
1-7
ISSN
  • 1687-5443 (ISSN-L)
  • 2090-5904
DOI
10.1155/2015/469750
PMC
PMC4386700
OpenAlex
W2034030223
Cited by
34
References
7
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1
FWCI
3.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Neural Plasticity (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Lundbeck Foundation
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
Keywords
congenital blindness, olfactory perception, emotion recognition, body odor, sweat, fear, disgust, social communication, sensory compensation, chemosensory detection
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Blindness, Discrimination, Psychological, Emotions, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuronal Plasticity, Odorants, Sweat, Olfactory Perception

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