An Evolutionarily Threat-Relevant Odor Strengthens Human Fear Memory

Olfaction is an evolutionary ancient sense, but it remains unclear to what extent it can influence routine human behavior. We examined whether a threat-relevant predator odor (2-methyl-2-thiazoline) would contextually enhance the formation of human fear memory associations. Participants who learned...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in neuroscience 2020-04, Vol.14, p.255-255
Main Authors: Taylor, Jessica E, Lau, Hakwan, Seymour, Ben, Nakae, Aya, Sumioka, Hidenobu, Kawato, Mitsuo, Koizumi, Ai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
contextual memory modulation
Cortisol
Electrodes
Experiments
Fear
fear memory
Females
human olfaction
innate fear
Learning
Memory
Neuroscience
Odor control
Olfaction
predator odor
Studies
Thiazoline
Threats
Visual stimuli
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Summary:Olfaction is an evolutionary ancient sense, but it remains unclear to what extent it can influence routine human behavior. We examined whether a threat-relevant predator odor (2-methyl-2-thiazoline) would contextually enhance the formation of human fear memory associations. Participants who learned to associate visual stimuli with electric shock in this predator odor context later showed stronger fear responses to the visual stimuli than participants who learned in an aversiveness-matched control odor context. This effect generalized to testing in another odor context, even after extinction training. Results of a separate experiment indicate that a possible biological mechanism for this effect may be increased cortisol levels in a predator odor context. These results suggest that innate olfactory processes can play an important role in human fear learning. Modulatory influences of odor contexts may partly explain the sometimes maladaptive persistence of human fear memory, e.g., in post-traumatic stress disorders.
ISSN:1662-4548
1662-453X
1662-453X
DOI:10.3389/fnins.2020.00255