Chemosensory anxiety signals as modulators of trust, and aggression

化学感应焦虑信号作为信任和攻击性的调节剂

• 批准号: 244493213
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Bettina M. Pause
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl Kognitionspsychologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/244493213?language=en
• 关键词: Chemosensory; anxiety; signals; modulators; trust

Chemosensory signals of anxiety increase the perceptual acuity for social signals of danger and they prime withdrawal related motor systems. As chemosensory signals of anxiety are processed within brain areas regulating empathic feelings it is proposed that these chemosignals convey feelings of anxiety from the sender to the perceiver. In addition, people suffering from social anxiety seem to process and react to chemosensory signals of anxiety stronger than non-anxious individuals. Here, it is aimed to investigate whether also overt social behavior in socially anxious and non-socially anxious participants is affected in the context of these chemosignals. Sweat will be sampled while the odor donors participate in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST, group testing) and while they are performing an easy ergometer training (control condition). The experimental part of the project will be related to the behavioral outcome of signal processing in the perceiver. As chemosginals of anxiety probably serve to inform conspecifics about a potential danger, it is expected that gender specific stress-related behavioral responses are going to be evoked in the context of chemosignals of anxiety. While men might respond to chemosensory anxiety signals with fight or flight behavior, in females, tend- and befriend behavior might be affected. Therefore, it is intended to set up two different measures of behavioral stress responses: one of which will be related to aggression and defense, the other one will be related to social binding, such as trust. It is expected that males respond to these chemosignals with an increased readiness to show overt aggression. However, in females the perception of chemosensory stress signals should activate an increased readiness to show binding behavior, such as trust. The behavioral experiments will be carried out with participants scoring high and low in social anxiety. In accordance with our previous findings, it is expected that the behavioral effects of the social chemosignals with be stronger in people experiencing high levels of social anxiety.

焦虑的化学感觉信号增加了对社会危险信号的感知敏锐度，它们启动了与戒断相关的运动系统。由于焦虑的化学感觉信号是在调节共情感觉的大脑区域内处理的，因此有人认为这些化学信号将焦虑感从发送者传递到接受者。此外，患有社交焦虑的人似乎比不焦虑的人更能处理焦虑的化学感觉信号并对其做出反应。在这里，它的目的是调查社交焦虑和非社交焦虑参与者的外显社交行为是否在这些化学信号的背景下受到影响。气味捐赠者在参加Trier社会压力测试(TSST，团体测试)和进行简易测功机训练(对照条件)时，将对汗液进行采样。项目的实验部分将与感知器中信号处理的行为结果相关。由于焦虑的化学信号可能起到告知特定潜在危险的作用，预计性别特定的压力相关的行为反应将在焦虑的化学信号的背景下被唤起。虽然男性可能会对化学感觉焦虑信号做出打斗或逃跑的反应，但在女性中，照顾和结交朋友的行为可能会受到影响。因此，旨在设置两种不同的行为应激反应测量：一种与攻击和防御有关，另一种与社会结合有关，如信任。预计雄性会对这些化学信号做出反应，更容易表现出公开的攻击性。然而，在女性中，对化学感觉压力信号的感知应该会激活更多的准备，以显示出约束性行为，如信任。行为实验将在参与者的社交焦虑得分高低的情况下进行。根据我们之前的发现，预计社交焦虑水平较高的人，社交化学信号对行为的影响会更强。