14 DAY TRIAL // Investigators from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) were recently able to link anxiety with a very heightened sense of smell in patients. They say that an extremely good olfactory system may be helping these individuals identify potential dangers in their environment with ease.
One of the reasons why this correlation exists is that smells evoke a strong emotional response in humans, just like it does in animals. In fact, evolution may have hardwired the nose to detect poisonous chemicals in the air, or the decay of organic matter, which may carry various contagions.
This hypothesis was suggested by UWM investigators Elizabeth Krusemark and Wen Li, which set out to prove it by using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner and 14 young test participants.
They asked the subjects to sit in the scanner, while the room they were in was vented with air containing three types of smells – neutral pure odors, neutral odor mixtures, and a negative odor mixture. All participants were then asked to determine whether any smell is present in the room.
While the scans were in progress, researchers also measured participants' arousal levels, by determining how well their skin conducts electricity, and monitored their breathing patterns as well. The team then eliminated the odors from the room, and asked the test subjects to rate their levels of anxiety.
One of the most intriguing conclusions in the new study was that the young adults in the test group appeared to get better at deciphering bad odors correctly the more anxious they were. This finding may demonstrate a direct link between the two systems, the study group says.
When someone who is anxious is exposed to negative odors, their brains will therefore start to display an extremely strong link between sensory and emotional areas. This may explain why these individuals exhibit a heightened arousal to threats.
Details of the new investigation were published in the latest online issue of the scientific journal Chemosensory Perception. This enhanced sensory-emotional connection, experts say, could become a new target for therapies meant to treat excessive anxiety, PsychCentral reports.