Trial reportPloS one2014
Reduced pleasant touch appraisal in the presence of a disgusting odor.
Trial report in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pupil Reactions to Tactile Stimulation: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of opioid receptor stimulation and blockade on touch pleasantness: a double-blind randomised trial.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2019Trial
- Decoding odor responses: universal patterns and individual signatures in psychophysiology using nonlinear models.Chemical senses · 2026Article
- Past, Present, and Future of Human Chemical Communication Research.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Review
- Neural mechanisms of comforting: Prosocial touch and stress buffering.Hormones and behavior · 2023Review
- Effects of sickness manipulation on disgust and pleasantness in interpersonal touch.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Article
- Roughness perception: A multisensory/crossmodal perspective.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2022Review
- Affective touch perception and longing for touch during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Pleasant touch perception in borderline personality disorder and its relationship with disturbed body representation.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2022Article
- Love Stinks: The Association between Body Odors and Romantic Relationship Commitment.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Crossmodal Associations with Olfactory, Auditory, and Tactile Stimuli in Children and Adults.i-Perception · 2021Article
- Crossmodal Interactions Between Olfaction and Touch Affecting Well-Being and Perception of Cosmetic Creams.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Perceived pleasantness of gentle touch in healthy individuals is related to salivary oxytocin response and EEG markers of arousal.Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Pleasantness Only?Experimental psychology · 2020Article
- Body-Mass-Index Associated Differences in Ortho- and Retronasal Olfactory Function and the Individual Significance of Olfaction in Health and Disease.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Multisensory modulation of body ownership in mice.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2020Article
- Article
- Using Ambient Scent to Enhance Well-Being in the Multisensory Built Environment.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Infants discriminate the source of social touch at stroking speeds eliciting maximal firing rates in CT-fibers.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesOdors are powerful emotional stimuli influencing mood, attention and behavior. Here we examined if odors change the perception of pleasant touch. In line with the warning function of the olfactory system, we proposed that especially unpleasant odors will reduce touch pleasantness, presumably through a disgust-related mechanism.
methodsForty-five healthy participants (mean age 23.3 +/- 3years SD, 24 females) were presented to slow (3 cm/s) and fast (30 cm/s) brush stroking delivered by a robot to the forearm. Touch pleasantness under the influence of an unpleasant odor (Civette, smelling like feces) and an intensity matched pleasant odor (Rose) was compared to an odorless control condition. In a pilot study with 30 participants (mean age 25.9 +/-6 years, 21 females), the odors were matched according to their intensity, and we studied the influence of disgust sensitivity on the perception of 4 different odor qualities.
resultsThe unpleasant odor decreased touch pleasantness for both stroking velocities compared to the odorless control (p<0.005) whereas the rose odor did not change touch pleasantness significantly. Disgust sensitivity was correlated with the modulation of touch pleasantness. The pilot study revealed a significant correlation between disgust sensitivity and the perception of the unpleasant odor qualities (r = -0.56; p = 0.007), but not with any of the other odors.
conclusionUnpleasant odors are powerful in modulating touch pleasantness, and disgust might be a moderating variable.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.