The nose reveals our relationship with our emotions

[Guest Nicole]

A team of researchers at SISSA have conducted a series of olfactory tests on alexithymia, a condition marked by reduced emotional awareness and the inability to describe experienced emotions

Do you express your emotions? Are you able to name them, talk about them, relate to your feelings? If your answer is not an unqualified yes, you might be among the 10 percent of the healthy population who has difficulty processing the emotions they experience: a psychological condition known as alexithymia. An alexithymic individual has difficulty, to a greater or lesser degree, in relating to the sensations - ranging from joy to fear, from disgust to anger - which make up our experience. New research conducted at SISSA in Trieste and published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports seeks to shed light on new aspects of the condition, using a hitherto completely untested approach. Specifically, given the close link which exists between the perception of smells and emotions, the scientists Cinzia Cecchetto, Raffaella Rumiati and Marilena Aiello used olfactory tests: "There is a partial overlap between the areas in our brains which deal with olfactory perception and those which process emotions. A test such as this may, therefore, be particularly suitable for studying this specific psychological condition," explains Aiello, who coordinated the research.

Read more: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/sisd-tnr102617.php