Citation

Frey MC, Weyers P, Pauli P, Mühlberger A. Percept. Mot. Skills 2012; 114(3): 807-825.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22913022

Abstract

The endogenous compound androstadienone modulating the evaluation of others and activating the human fear system was hypothesized in terms of processing socially relevant cues by regulating responses to angry faces. Androstadienone was investigated in association with arm movements of 62 participants (30 women) in response to happy and angry facial expressions. Volunteers pushed away or pulled toward them a joystick as fast as possible on seeing either an angry or a happy cartoon face on a computer screen. This task was repeated twice: once during exposure to androstadienone masked with clove oil and once to clove oil only. In the former condition participants' reaction speed was accelerated, especially when reacting to angry faces. This observation may indicate an androstadienone-related activation of the fear system leading to faster responses to threat signals, assuming an enhanced allocation of attentional resources toward threat-related social cues.

Language: en