Smell Of Anxiety

The Smell Of Anxiety

Our sense of smell can have a large impact on how we think and feel. But did you know that mood can affect how we smell?
When Neutral Odors Turn Bad

According to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin Madison, feeling anxious can make typically neutral smells seem repugnant.

The study involved a dozen volunteers who rated a panel of neutral smells. Then, while inside an MRI machine, subjects were made to feel anxious with disturbing images of car crashes and grisly war scenes.

They were then asked to rank the panels of neutral smells once again. But now, after having been made anxious by the images, they described some of the smells as negative.
So What’s Going On?

MRI revealed that during induced anxiety, the smell related circuits of the brain became intertwined with the brain’s emotional circuitry. Normally, those circuits don’t interact much, but when the subjects were anxious, the circuits morphed into something like a unified network, essentially rewiring the brain. And somehow, that rewiring affected how the subjects interacted with the world through smell.

So why does this matter? First, because it helps explain how anxiety can feed on itself. Insofar as being anxious makes things smell generally worse, those worse smells may in turn cause greater anxiety, creating an anxiety feedback loop.

On the bright side, understanding how emotion and smell can intertwine may also lead to ways to use smell as a way to combat anxiety and other mental disorders an intriguing possibility that may be borne out with more research

心情能够影响你的嗅觉

我们的嗅觉对我们的思维和感觉能够产生很大影响。但你知道吗，心情也是能够影响嗅觉的。

当中性气味变的刺鼻时

根据威斯康星麦迪逊大学研究人员的一份报告显示，焦虑的心情能够让典型的中性气味变得刺鼻。

该项研究邀请了12名志愿者并让他们辨别一组中性气味。然后通过向他们播放撞车和可怕的战争场景图像来使他们产生焦虑的情绪，并用核磁共振仪进行观察。
接着，志愿者们被要求再次对这组中性气味进行辨别。但是由于之前看到的影片产生了焦虑感，他们这次则表示闻到的气体是刺鼻的。

核磁共振结果显示，由于心情焦虑，大脑中跟嗅觉有关的回路跟情绪相关的回路产生了交织。正常情况下，这些回路并不会发生太多的互动，但是当人体变得焦虑时，这两种回路就会变成一个看似交织在一起的网络，本质上来说就是对大脑的回路进行了重组。而且，不知何故，这种改变影响了志愿者通过嗅觉与外界进行联系的方式。

为什么知道这一点会很重要呢？首先，它可以有助于解释焦虑是如何变强的。如果说一定程度的焦虑会让人感觉闻到的东西很刺鼻，那么越刺鼻的气味则会反过来引发更强烈的焦虑感，由此便产生了一种焦虑的恶性循环。

好的一面是，如果理解了情绪跟气味是如何互动的原理，我们可以利用气味来战胜焦虑和其他的心理疾病，但是这种有趣的可能性还需要投入更多的研究来加以证实。