Cinzia Cecchetto

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensory Systems

Scopus Publications

Sniffing out a solution: How emotional body odors can improve mindfulness therapy for social anxiety
Cinzia Cecchetto, Elisa Dal Bò, Emma T. Eliasson, Elisa Vigna, Ludovica Natali, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, Alberto Greco, Fabio Di Francesco, Gergö Hadlaczky, Johan N. Lundström,et al.
Elsevier BV



Olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders: A comprehensive and updated meta-analysis
Letizia Zurlo, Elisa Dal Bò, Claudio Gentili, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Elsevier BV



Emotion perception through the nose: how olfactory emotional cues modulate the perception of neutral facial expressions in affective disorders
Elisa Dal Bò, Cinzia Cecchetto, Alejandro Luis Callara, Alberto Greco, Francesca Mura, Nicola Vanello, Fabio Di Francesco, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, and Claudio Gentili
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractHumans can decode emotional states from the body odors of the conspecifics and this type of emotional communication is particularly relevant in conditions in which social interactions are impaired, as in depression and social anxiety. The present study aimed to explore how body odors collected in happiness and fearful conditions modulate the subjective ratings, the psychophysiological response and the neural processing of neutral faces in individuals with depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and healthy controls (N = 22 per group). To this aim, electrocardiogram (ECG) and HD-EEG were recorded continuously. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was extracted from the ECG as a measure of vagal tone, event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related spectral perturbations (ERPSs) were extracted from the EEG. The results revealed that the HRV increased during the fear and happiness body odors conditions compared to clean air, but no group differences emerged. For ERPs data, repeated measure ANOVA did not show any significant effects. However, the ERPSs analyses revealed a late increase in delta power and a reduced beta power both at an early and a late stage of stimulus processing in response to the neutral faces presented with the emotional body odors, regardless of the presence of depressive or social anxiety symptoms. The current research offers new insights, demonstrating that emotional chemosignals serve as potent environmental cues. This represents a substantial advancement in comprehending the impact of emotional chemosignals in both individuals with and without affective disorders.


Combining electrodermal activity analysis and dynamic causal modeling to investigate the visual-odor multimodal integration during face perception
Gianluca Rho, Alejandro Luis Callara, Francesco Bossi, Dimitri Ognibene, Cinzia Cecchetto, Tommaso Lomonaco, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, and Alberto Greco
IOP Publishing
Abstract Objective. This study presents a novel methodological approach for incorporating information related to the peripheral sympathetic response into the investigation of neural dynamics. Particularly, we explore how hedonic contextual olfactory stimuli influence the processing of neutral faces in terms of sympathetic response, event-related potentials and effective connectivity analysis. The objective is to investigate how the emotional valence of odors influences the cortical connectivity underlying face processing and the role of face-induced sympathetic arousal in this visual-olfactory multimodal integration. Approach. To this aim, we combine electrodermal activity (EDA) analysis and dynamic causal modeling to examine changes in cortico-cortical interactions. Results. The results reveal that stimuli arising sympathetic EDA responses are associated with a more negative N170 amplitude, which may be a marker of heightened arousal in response to faces. Hedonic odors, on the other hand, lead to a more negative N1 component and a reduced the vertex positive potential when they are unpleasant or pleasant. Concerning connectivity, unpleasant odors strengthen the forward connection from the inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) to the middle temporal gyrus, which is involved in processing changeable facial features. Conversely, the occurrence of sympathetic responses after a stimulus is correlated with an inhibition of this same connection and an enhancement of the backward connection from ITG to the fusiform face gyrus. Significance. These findings suggest that unpleasant odors may enhance the interpretation of emotional expressions and mental states, while faces capable of eliciting sympathetic arousal prioritize identity processing.


Consistent social odor representation across 7 languages: the Social Odor Scale translation and validation
Cinzia Cecchetto, Arnaud Leleu, Roberta P Calce, Sally Arnhardt, Valentina Parma, Jasper H B de Groot, Jessica Freiherr, Claudio Gentili, Laiquan Zou, Evelina Thunell,et al.
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Abstract The Social Odor Scale (SOS) is a 12-item questionnaire initially developed and validated in Italian and German to investigate self-reported awareness of social odors, which are odors emanating from the human body that convey diverse information and evoke various emotional responses. The scale includes a total score and 3 subscales representing social odors in the respective categories: romantic partner, familiar, and strangers. Here, we aimed to (i) replicate the validation of the Italian and German versions of the SOS, (ii) translate and validate the SOS into multiple additional languages (French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese), and (iii) explore whether the factor structure of each translated version aligns with the original versions. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported the scale’s structure, yielding a good fit across all languages. Notable differences in SOS mean scores were observed among the different languages: Swedish participants exhibited lower social odor awareness compared to the other groups, whereas Chinese participants reported higher social odor awareness compared to Dutch and Swedish participants. Furthermore, SOS scores correlated with respondents’ geographical location, with higher (i.e. northern) latitudes linked to lower social odor awareness. These results corroborate the SOS as a valid and reliable instrument, especially for the SOS total score and the Familiar and Partner factors, emphasizing the influence of individual and geographic factors on social odor awareness.


Low odor awareness predicts reduced olfactory abilities in women with depressive symptoms, but not with anxiety symptoms
Elisa Dal Bò, Ludovica Natali, Claudio Gentili, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Elsevier BV



Alexithymia modulates the attitudes towards odors but not the olfactory abilities or the affective reactions to odors
Cinzia Cecchetto, Elisa Dal Bò, Marilena Aiello, Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister, Claudio Gentili, and Sofia Adelaide Osimo
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Although emotion and olfaction are closely linked, only a few studies have investigated olfactory processing in alexithymia, a condition characterized by altered emotional processing. These results do not allow comprehensive conclusions on whether individuals with alexithymia present lower olfactory abilities or only altered affective reactions and awareness of odors. Three pre-registered experiments were conducted to clarify this relation. We assessed olfactory functions, the affective qualities of odors, the awareness of odors, the attitudes towards them, and the ability to form olfactory images in the mind. Bayesian statistics were used to assess differences between low, medium and high alexithymia groups, and Linear Mixed Models (LMMs) were applied to investigate the modulation of the affective and cognitive components of alexithymia. We observed that individuals with a high level of alexithymia presented the same olfactory abilities, and did not show differences in their rating of odors compared to individuals with low alexithymia levels, while they reported lower levels of social and common odor awareness and a more indifferent attitude towards odors. Olfactory imagery was not affected by alexithymia level, and the affective and cognitive components of alexithymia, when considered separately, modulated olfactory perception differently. Learning more about olfactory perception in individuals with alexithymia leads to a better understanding of how alexithymia impacts the perception of hedonic stimuli coming from different sensory modalities. Our results imply that treatment goals for alexithymia should be the enhancement of the conscious perception of odors, supporting the use of mindfulness-based protocols in the alexithymia treatment.


Effect of EDA-driven sympathetic responses on the central processing of faces cued by hedonic odors: a preliminary ERP study




Editorial: The functional connectome of chemosensory perception
Florian Ph.S Fischmeister, Maria G. Veldhuizen, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Frontiers Media SA
COPYRIGHT © 2022 Fischmeister, Veldhuizen and Cecchetto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: The functional connectome of chemosensory perception


Olfactory meta-cognition in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms: The differential role of common and social odors
Elisa Dal Bò, Claudio Gentili, Andrea Castellani, Carmen Tripodi, Florian Ph.S Fischmeister, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Elsevier BV



Future Directions for Chemosensory Connectomes: Best Practices and Specific Challenges
Maria G. Veldhuizen, Cinzia Cecchetto, Alexander W. Fjaeldstad, Michael C. Farruggia, Renée Hartig, Yuko Nakamura, Robert Pellegrino, Andy W. K. Yeung, and Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister
Frontiers Media SA
Ecological chemosensory stimuli almost always evoke responses in more than one sensory system. Moreover, any sensory processing takes place along a hierarchy of brain regions. So far, the field of chemosensory neuroimaging is dominated by studies that examine the role of brain regions in isolation. However, to completely understand neural processing of chemosensation, we must also examine interactions between regions. In general, the use of connectivity methods has increased in the neuroimaging field, providing important insights to physical sensory processing, such as vision, audition, and touch. A similar trend has been observed in chemosensory neuroimaging, however, these established techniques have largely not been rigorously applied to imaging studies on the chemical senses, leaving network insights overlooked. In this article, we first highlight some recent work in chemosensory connectomics and we summarize different connectomics techniques. Then, we outline specific challenges for chemosensory connectome neuroimaging studies. Finally, we review best practices from the general connectomics and neuroimaging fields. We recommend future studies to develop or use the following methods we perceive as key to improve chemosensory connectomics: (1) optimized study designs, (2) reporting guidelines, (3) consensus on brain parcellations, (4) consortium research, and (5) data sharing.


Food olfactory cues reactivity in individuals with obesity and the contribution of alexithymia
C. Cecchetto, E. Pisanu, V. Schöpf, R.I. Rumiati, and M. Aiello
Elsevier BV



Valence, Arousal, and Gender Effect on Olfactory Cortical Network Connectivity: A Study Using Dynamic Causal Modeling for EEG
Gianluca Rho, Alejandro Luis Callara, Cinzia Cecchetto, Nicola Vanello, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, and Alberto Greco
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
The cortical network including the piriform (PC), orbitofrontal (OFC), and entorhinal (EC) cortices allows the complex processing of behavioral, cognitive, and context-related odor information and represents an access gate to the subcortical limbic regions. Among the several factors that influence odor processing, their hedonic content and gender differences play a relevant role. Here, we investigated how these factors influence EEG effective connectivity among the mentioned brain regions during emotional olfactory stimuli. To this aim, we acquired EEG data from twenty-one healthy volunteers, during a passive odor task of odorants with different valence. We used Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) for EEG and Parametric Empirical Bayes (PEB) to investigate the modulatory effects of odors’ valence on the connectivity strengths of the PC-EC-OFC network. Moreover, we controlled for the influence of arousal and gender on such modulatory effects. Our results highlighted the relevant role of the forward and backward PC-EC connections in odor’s brain processing. On the one hand, the EC-to-PC connection was inhibited by both pleasant and unpleasant odors, but not by the neutral one. On the other hand, the PC-to-EC forward connection was found to be modulated (posterior probability (Pp)>0.95) by the arousal level associated with an unpleasant odor. Finally, the whole network dynamics showed several significant gender-related differences (Pp>0.95) suggesting a better ability in odor discrimination for the female gender.


Human body odors of happiness and fear modulate the late positive potential component during neutral face processing: a preliminary ERP study on healthy subjects
Alejandro Luis Callara, Cinzia Cecchetto, Elisa Dal Bo, Luca Citi, Claudio Gentili, Nicola Vanello, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo, and Alberto Greco
IEEE
Human body odors (HBOs) are powerful stimuli that can affect emotional, cognitive and behavioral processes. However, the characterization of the physiological response to HBOs is still to be fully investigated. Here, we analyzed the self-assessed emotion perception and the EEG event-related potentials (ERP) on 17 healthy young women during a simultaneous visual-olfactory stimulation. Particularly, we evaluated the effect of happiness and fear HBO on the amplitude of ERP waveforms elicited by neutral face processing. In addition, we evaluated the subjective valence and arousal perception of the presented neutral faces by means of the self-assessment-manikin test. We observed a significant increase in the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) for central left sites (i.e., C3) during the administration of HBOs with respect to clean air. On the other hand, we did not observe any significant change in the subjective valence and arousal scores as well as for the early components of the ERP (i.e., P100, N170, Vertex-Positive-Potential). Our preliminary results suggest that fear and happiness HBO can induce a protracted increase in the LPP, and possibly reflect an automatic and sustained engagement with emotionally significant content.


A follow-up on quantitative and qualitative olfactory dysfunction and other symptoms in patients recovering from COVID-19 smell loss
K. Ohla, M.G. Veldhuizen, T. Green, M.E. Hannum, A.J. Bakke, S.T. Moein, A. Tognetti, E.M. Postma, R. Pellegrino, D.L.D. Hwang,et al.
Stichting Nase
Background: Sudden smell loss is a specific early symptom of COVID-19, which, prior to the emergence of Omicron, had estimated prevalence of ~40% to 75%. Chemosensory impairments affect physical and mental health, and dietary behavior. Thus, it is critical to understand the rate and time course of smell recovery. The aim of this cohort study was to characterize smell function and recovery up to 11 months post COVID-19 infection. Methods: This longitudinal survey of individuals suffering COVID-19-related smell loss assessed disease symptoms and gustatory and olfactory function. Participants (n=12,313) who completed an initial survey (S1) about respiratory symptoms, chemosensory function and COVID-19 diagnosis between April and September 2020, were invited to complete a follow-up survey (S2). Between September 2020 and February 2021, 27.5% participants responded (n=3,386), with 1,468 being diagnosed with COVID-19 and suffering co-occurring smell and taste loss at the beginning of their illness. Results: At follow-up (median time since COVID-19 onset ~200 days), ~60% of women and ~48% of men reported less than 80% of their pre-illness smell ability. Taste typically recovered faster than smell, and taste loss rarely persisted if smell recovered. Prevalence of parosmia and phantosmia was ~10% of participants in S1 and increased substantially in S2: ~47% for parosmia and ~25% for phantosmia. Persistent smell impairment was associated with more symptoms overall, suggesting it may be a key marker of long-COVID illness. The ability to smell during COVID-19 was rated slightly lower by those who did not eventually recover their pre-illness ability to smell at S2. Conclusions: While smell ability improves for many individuals who lost it during acute COVID-19, the prevalence of parosmia and phantosmia increases substantially over time. Olfactory dysfunction is associated with broader persistent symptoms of COVID-19, and may last for many months following acute COVID-19. Taste loss in the absence of smell loss is rare. Persistent qualitative smell symptoms are emerging as common long-term sequelae; more research into treatment options is strongly warranted given that even conservative estimates suggest millions of individuals may experience parosmia following COVID-19. Healthcare providers worldwide need to be prepared to treat post COVID-19 secondary effects on physical and mental health.


The social odor scale: Development and initial validation of a new scale for the assessment of social odor awareness
Elisa Dal Bò, Claudio Gentili, Andrea Spoto, Giovanni Bruno, Andrea Castellani, Carmen Tripodi, Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
The degree of attention individuals pay to olfactory cues (called odor awareness) influences the role of odors in everyday life. Particularly, odors produced by the human body (i.e., social odors) are able to carry a wide variety of information and to elicit a broad spectrum of emotional reactions, making them essential in interpersonal relationships. Hence, despite the assessment of awareness toward social odors is crucial, a proper tool is still lacking. Here, we designed and initially validated the Social Odor Scale (SOS), a 12-item scale designed to measure the individual differences in awareness towards different social odors. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA; KMO test: MSA = 0.78; Bartlett’s test: χ2(78) = 631.34, p < 0.001; Chi-squared test: χ2(42) = 71.84, p = 0.003) suggests that the three factors structure was the model that best fit with the Italian version of the scale. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supports a second-order model with one higher-order factor representing social odor awareness in general and three lower-order factors representing familiar, romantic partner, and stranger social odors. The final version of the scale presented a good fit (RMSEA = 0.012, SRMR = 0.069, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.997). In Study 2, CFA was performed in the German version of the scale confirming the validity of scale structure. Study 3 and 4 revealed that SOS total score and its subscales were positively correlated with other validated olfactory scales, but not with olfactory abilities. Moreover, SOS was found to be related to the gender of the participants: women reported to be more aware to social odors and, specifically, to familiar social odors than men. Overall, the results indicated that SOS is a valid and reliable instrument to assess awareness toward social odors in everyday life.


Assessing the extent and timing of chemosensory impairments during COVID-19 pandemic
Cinzia Cecchetto, Antonella Di Pizio, Federica Genovese, Orietta Calcinoni, Alberto Macchi, Andreas Dunkel, Kathrin Ohla, Sara Spinelli, Michael C. Farruggia, Paule V. Joseph,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractChemosensory impairments have been established as a specific indicator of COVID-19. They affect most patients and may persist long past the resolution of respiratory symptoms, representing an unprecedented medical challenge. Since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic started, we now know much more about smell, taste, and chemesthesis loss associated with COVID-19. However, the temporal dynamics and characteristics of recovery are still unknown. Here, capitalizing on data from the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR) crowdsourced survey, we assessed chemosensory abilities after the resolution of respiratory symptoms in participants diagnosed with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. This analysis led to the identification of two patterns of chemosensory recovery, partial and substantial, which were found to be associated with differential age, degrees of chemosensory loss, and regional patterns. Uncovering the self-reported phenomenology of recovery from smell, taste, and chemesthetic disorders is the first, yet essential step, to provide healthcare professionals with the tools to take purposeful and targeted action to address chemosensory disorders and their severe discomfort.


Metabolic Dynamics in the Prefrontal Cortex during a Working Memory Task in Young Adult Smokers
Deepika Bagga, Cinzia Cecchetto, Christoph Stefan Aigner, Illya Tiraspolski, Karl Koschutnig, Florian P.S. Fischmeister, and Veronika Schöpf
S. Karger AG
<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Cigarette smoking is known to modulate brain metabolism and brain function. How the dynamics of these metabolic alterations influence the active performance of higher order cognitive tasks in smokers, compared to non-smokers, is still unclear. The present exploratory study sought to examine the impact of smoking on the “complete” metabolic profile while the participants performed a working memory (N-back) task. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The study sample consisted of 40 young male healthy participants (smokers [<i>n</i> = 20] and non-smokers [<i>n</i> = 20]). Functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy data were acquired using a 3 T whole-body MR system. Data analysis was performed using Java-based Magnetic Resonance User Interface software, and metabolite ratios with respect to creatine (Cr) were calculated. <b><i>Results:</i></b> On a behavioural level, smokers showed worse performance (measured by d’) than non-smokers. However, we observed significant differences in the metabolite concentrations in smokers compared to non-smokers, which also changed over the course of the N-back task. A significant effect of the group was observed with smokers showing lower glutamate/Cr (Glx/Cr) and choline/Cr (Cho/Cr) ratios than non-smokers. Further, N-acetyl aspartate (NAA/Cr) and Cho/Cr ratios were significantly different during the rest and the task conditions. In addition, our results demonstrated the metabolite interactions (NAA and Cho, Glx and myo-inositol [mI], and Cho and mI). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Further studies are necessary to shed more light on the association between smoking behaviours and metabolic alterations. However, our preliminary findings would assist in this future research to have a complete understanding of the metabolite interactions not only in smoking but also in addiction research.


Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown, psychological and social distress
Cinzia Cecchetto, Marilena Aiello, Claudio Gentili, Silvio Ionta, and Sofia Adelaide Osimo
Elsevier BV



The Influence of Personality, Resilience, and Alexithymia on Mental Health During COVID-19 Pandemic
Sofia Adelaide Osimo, Marilena Aiello, Claudio Gentili, Silvio Ionta, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Frontiers Media SA
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries worldwide have put lockdowns in place to prevent the virus from spreading. Evidence shows that lockdown measures can affect mental health; it is, therefore, important to identify the psychological characteristics making individuals more vulnerable. The present study aimed, first, to identify, through a cluster analysis, the psychological attributes that characterize individuals with similar psychological responses to the COVID-19 home confinement; second, to investigate whether different psychological characteristics, such as personality traits, alexithymia, and resilience, specifically influence anxiety, stress, and depression, depending on the scope of the confinement. We analyzed data from 393 participants who completed an online survey on their experiences during two different phases of the Italian lockdown, characterized by more or less strict measures of confinement. Two clusters were identified which included participants reporting a better (+ER) and worse (−ER) emotional response to the lockdown, respectively. Individuals in the −ER group showed lower emotional stability, resilience, and higher alexithymia. Moreover, even if lifting part of the restrictions decreased psychological distress among all participants, a reduction in perceived stress was observed only among individuals with high resilience. Finally, personality traits, alexithymia, and resilience differently affected depression, anxiety, and stress. Our results suggest that different psychological interventions should be planned depending on the context: mental health professionals should focus on enhancing the individuals’ coping strategies to alleviate stress in emergencies, while long-term intervention aiming at alleviating anxiety and depressive symptoms should focus on alexithymic tendencies and personality constructs.


Recent smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 among individuals with recent respiratory symptoms
Richard C Gerkin, Kathrin Ohla, Maria G Veldhuizen, Paule V Joseph, Christine E Kelly, Alyssa J Bakke, Kimberley E Steele, Michael C Farruggia, Robert Pellegrino, Marta Y Pepino,et al.
Oxford University Press (OUP)
AbstractIn a preregistered, cross-sectional study, we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0–100 visual analog scales (VAS) for participants reporting a positive (C19+; n = 4148) or negative (C19−; n = 546) COVID-19 laboratory test outcome. Logistic regression models identified univariate and multivariate predictors of COVID-19 status and post-COVID-19 olfactory recovery. Both C19+ and C19− groups exhibited smell loss, but it was significantly larger in C19+ participants (mean ± SD, C19+: −82.5 ± 27.2 points; C19−: −59.8 ± 37.7). Smell loss during illness was the best predictor of COVID-19 in both univariate and multivariate models (ROC AUC = 0.72). Additional variables provide negligible model improvement. VAS ratings of smell loss were more predictive than binary chemosensory yes/no-questions or other cardinal symptoms (e.g., fever). Olfactory recovery within 40 days of respiratory symptom onset was reported for ~50% of participants and was best predicted by time since respiratory symptom onset. We find that quantified smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 amongst those with symptoms of respiratory illness. To aid clinicians and contact tracers in identifying individuals with a high likelihood of having COVID-19, we propose a novel 0–10 scale to screen for recent olfactory loss, the ODoR-19. We find that numeric ratings ≤2 indicate high odds of symptomatic COVID-19 (4 < OR < 10). Once independently validated, this tool could be deployed when viral lab tests are impractical or unavailable.


Human chemosignals and brain activity: A preliminary meta-analysis of the processing of human body odors
Elisa Dal Bò, Claudio Gentili, and Cinzia Cecchetto
Oxford University Press (OUP)
AbstractAcross phyla, chemosignals are a widely used form of social communication and increasing evidence suggests that chemosensory communication is present also in humans. Chemosignals can transfer, via body odors, socially relevant information, such as specific information about identity or emotional states. However, findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors are divergent. The aims of this meta-analysis were to assess the brain areas involved in the perception of body odors (both neutral and emotional) and the specific activation patterns for the perception of neutral body odor (NBO) and emotional body odor (EBO). We conducted an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis on 16 experiments (13 studies) examining brain activity during body odors processing. We found that the contrast EBO versus NBO resulted in significant convergence in the right middle frontal gyrus and the left cerebellum, whereas the pooled meta-analysis combining all the studies of human odors showed significant convergence in the right inferior frontal gyrus. No significant cluster was found for NBOs. However, our findings also highlight methodological heterogeneity across the existing literature. Further neuroimaging studies are needed to clarify and support the existing findings on neural correlates of processing of body odors.


Human body odor increases familiarity for faces during encoding-retrieval task
Cinzia Cecchetto, Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister, Sarah Gorkiewicz, Wolfgang Schuehly, Deepika Bagga, Valentina Parma, and Veronika Schöpf
Wiley
AbstractOdors can increase memory performance when presented as context during both encoding and retrieval phases. Since information from different sensory modalities is integrated into a unified conceptual knowledge, we hypothesize that the social information from body odors and faces would be integrated during encoding. The integration of such social information would enhance retrieval more so than when the encoding occurs in the context of common odors. To examine this hypothesis and to further explore the underlying neural correlates of this behavior, we have conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants performed an encoding‐retrieval memory task for faces during the presentation of common odor, body odor or clean air. At the behavioral level, results show that participants were less biased and faster in recognizing faces when presented in concomitance with the body odor compared to the common odor. At the neural level, the encoding of faces in the body odor condition, compared to common odor and clean air conditions, showed greater activation in areas related to associative memory (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), odor perception and multisensory integration (orbitofrontal cortex). These results suggest that face and body odor information were integrated and as a result, participants were faster in recognizing previously presented material.


Body odors (even when masked) make you more emotional: behavioral and neural insights
Cinzia Cecchetto, Elisa Lancini, Domenica Bueti, Raffaella Ida Rumiati, and Valentina Parma
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractMorality evolved within specific social contexts that are argued to shape moral choices. In turn, moral choices are hypothesized to be affected by body odors as they powerfully convey socially-relevant information. We thus investigated the neural underpinnings of the possible body odors effect on the participants’ decisions. In an fMRI study we presented to healthy individuals 64 moral dilemmas divided in incongruent (real) and congruent (fake) moral dilemmas, using different types of harm (intentional: instrumental dilemmas, or inadvertent: accidental dilemmas). Participants were required to choose deontological or utilitarian actions under the exposure to a neutral fragrance (masker) or body odors concealed by the same masker (masked body odor). Smelling the masked body odor while processing incongruent (not congruent) dilemmas activates the supramarginal gyrus, consistent with an increase in prosocial attitude. When processing accidental (not instrumental) dilemmas, smelling the masked body odor activates the angular gyrus, an area associated with the processing of people’s presence, supporting the hypothesis that body odors enhance the saliency of the social context in moral scenarios. These results suggest that masked body odors can influence moral choices by increasing the emotional experience during the decision process, and further explain how sensory unconscious biases affect human behavior.


Influence of 4-week multi-strain probiotic administration on resting-state functional connectivity in healthy volunteers
Deepika Bagga, Christoph Stefan Aigner, Johanna Louise Reichert, Cinzia Cecchetto, Florian Ph. S. Fischmeister, Peter Holzer, Christine Moissl-Eichinger, and Veronika Schöpf
Springer Science and Business Media LLC

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

Sniffing out a solution: How emotional body odors can improve mindfulness therapy for social anxiety
C Cecchetto, E Dal B, ET Eliasson, E Vigna, L Natali, EP Scilingo, ...
Journal of Affective Disorders 369, 1082-1089 2025



Olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders: A comprehensive and updated meta-analysis
L Zurlo, E Dal B, C Gentili, C Cecchetto
Schizophrenia Research 275, 62-75 2025



Emotion perception through the nose: how olfactory emotional cues modulate the perception of neutral facial expressions in affective disorders
E Dal B, C Cecchetto, AL Callara, A Greco, F Mura, N Vanello, ...
Translational Psychiatry 14 (1), 342 2024



brain correlates of psychotherapy of depression
C Gentili, L Zurlo, E Dal B, C Cecchetto, F Mura, M Floris
OSF 2024



Exploring the Brain’s Response to Food Stimuli in Anorexia Nervosa: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies
E Dal B, L Zurlo, C Cecchetto, C Gentili
2024



Olfactory Dysfunction in Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders: A Comprehensive and Updated Meta-Analysis
L Zurlo, E Dal B, C Gentili, C Cecchetto
PsyArXiv 2024



Catalyst effect of human body odours in social anxiety treatment–a pilot study.
E Vigna, V Carli, C Cecchetto, E Dal B
European Psychiatry 67 (S1), S9-S9 2024



Combining electrodermal activity analysis and dynamic causal modeling to investigate the visual-odor multimodal integration during face perception
G Rho, AL Callara, F Bossi, D Ognibene, C Cecchetto, T Lomonaco, ...
Journal of Neural Engineering 21 (1), 016020 2024



Consistent social odor representation across 7 languages: the Social Odor Scale translation and validation
C Cecchetto, A Leleu, RP Calce, S Arnhardt, V Parma, JHB de Groot, ...
Chemical senses 49, bjae035 2024



Low odor awareness predicts reduced olfactory abilities in women with depressive symptoms, but not with anxiety symptoms
E Dal B, L Natali, C Gentili, C Cecchetto
Journal of Affective Disorders 338, 171-179 2023



Multimodal Integration of Olfactory and Visual Processing through DCM analysis: Contextual Modulation of Facial Perception
G Rho, AL Callara, F Bossi, D Ognibene, C Cecchetto, T Lomonaco, ...
arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.03536 2023



LATE-BREAKING THE PROCESSING OF EMOTIONAL BODY ODORS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS: A HIGH-DENSITY EEG STUDY
E Dal Bo, C Cecchetto, A Callara, F Mura, A Greco, N Vanello, E Scilingo, ...
PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY 60, S137-S137 2023



Alexithymia modulates the attitudes towards odors but not the olfactory abilities or the affective reactions to odors
C Cecchetto, E Dal B, M Aiello, FPS Fischmeister, C Gentili, SA Osimo
Plos one 18 (6), e0278496 2023



Affective and physiological responses to human body odors in social anxiety–a pilot study on the possible effects as catalyst for treatment
E Vigna, C Cecchetto, E Dal B, G Hadlaczky, D Wasserman, V Carli
European Psychiatry 66 (S1), S73-S73 2023



EMOTIONAL CHEMOSIGNALS PROCESSING IN AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
E Dal Bo, C Cecchetto, AL Callara, F Mura, A Greco, N Vanello, ...
CHEMICAL SENSES 48 2023



Valence, arousal, and gender effect on olfactory cortical network connectivity: A study using dynamic causal modeling for EEG
G Rho, AL Callara, C Cecchetto, N Vanello, EP Scilingo, A Greco
IEEE Access 10, 127313-127327 2022



Social Odor Scale validation in multiple languages
C Cecchetto, E Dal B, C Gentili, FPS Fischmeister, D Rekow, RP Calce, ...
OSF 2022



The functional connectome of chemosensory perception
FPS Fischmeister, MG Veldhuizen, C Cecchetto
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 16, 1025962 2022



Human body odors of happiness and fear modulate the late positive potential component during neutral face processing: a preliminary ERP study on healthy subjects
AL Callara, C Cecchetto, E Dal B, L Citi, C Gentili, N Vanello, ...
2022 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in 2022



Olfactory meta-cognition in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms: the differential role of common and social odors
E Dal B, C Gentili, A Castellani, C Tripodi, FPS Fischmeister, ...
Journal of affective disorders 308, 259-267 2022

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown, psychological and social distress
C Cecchetto, M Aiello, C Gentili, S Ionta, SA Osimo
Appetite 160, 105122 2021
Citations: 310



Recent smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 among individuals with recent respiratory symptoms
RC Gerkin, K Ohla, MG Veldhuizen, PV Joseph, CE Kelly, AJ Bakke, ...
Chemical senses 46, bjaa081 2021
Citations: 171



The influence of personality, resilience, and alexithymia on mental health during COVID-19 pandemic
SA Osimo, M Aiello, C Gentili, S Ionta, C Cecchetto
Frontiers in psychology 12, 630751 2021
Citations: 125



Influence of 4-week multi-strain probiotic administration on resting-state functional connectivity in healthy volunteers
D Bagga, CS Aigner, JL Reichert, C Cecchetto, FPS Fischmeister, ...
European Journal of Nutrition 58, 1821-1827 2019
Citations: 108



A follow-up on quantitative and qualitative olfactory dysfunction and other symptoms in patients recovering from COVID-19 smell loss
K Ohla, MG Veldhuizen, T Green, ME Hannum, AJ Bakke, ST Moein, ...
Rhinology 60 (3), 207 2022
Citations: 90



Emotional reactions in moral decision-making are influenced by empathy and alexithymia
C Cecchetto, S Korb, RI Rumiati, M Aiello
Social neuroscience 13 (2), 226-240 2018
Citations: 76



Facial and bodily emotion recognition in multiple sclerosis: the role of alexithymia and other characteristics of the disease
C Cecchetto, M Aiello, D D’Amico, D Cutuli, D Cargnelutti, R Eleopra, ...
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 20 (10), 1004-1014 2014
Citations: 68



Processing of human body odors
V Parma, AR Gordon, C Cecchetto, A Cavazzana, JN Lundstrm, ...
Springer handbook of odor, 127-128 2017
Citations: 62



On-line changing of thinking about words: the effect of cognitive context on neural responses to verb reading
L Papeo, RI Rumiati, C Cecchetto, B Tomasino
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 24 (12), 2348-2362 2012
Citations: 55



The processing of actions and action-words in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients
L Papeo, C Cecchetto, G Mazzon, G Granello, T Cattaruzza, L Verriello, ...
Cortex 64, 136-147 2015
Citations: 43



Alexithymia and emotional reactions to odors
C Cecchetto, RI Rumiati, M Aiello
Scientific Reports 7 (1), 14097 2017
Citations: 38



Body odors (even when masked) make you more emotional: behavioral and neural insights
C Cecchetto, E Lancini, D Bueti, RI Rumiati, V Parma
Scientific Reports 9 (1), 5489 2019
Citations: 37



Human body odor increases familiarity for faces during encoding‐retrieval task
C Cecchetto, FPS Fischmeister, S Gorkiewicz, W Schuehly, D Bagga, ...
Human Brain Mapping 41 (7), 1904-1919 2020
Citations: 31



Assessing the extent and timing of chemosensory impairments during COVID-19 pandemic
C Cecchetto, A Di Pizio, F Genovese, O Calcinoni, A Macchi, A Dunkel, ...
Scientific reports 11 (1), 17504 2021
Citations: 30



Relative contribution of odour intensity and valence to moral decisions
C Cecchetto, RI Rumiati, V Parma
Perception 46 (3-4), 447-474 2017
Citations: 28



The best COVID-19 predictor is recent smell loss: a cross-sectional study
RC Gerkin, K Ohla, MG Veldhuizen, PV Joseph, CE Kelly, AJ Bakke, ...
MedRxiv 2020
Citations: 27



Increasing incidence of parosmia and phantosmia in patients recovering from COVID-19 smell loss
K Ohla, MG Veldhuizen, T Green, ME Hannum, AJ Bakke, ST Moein, ...
MedRxiv, 2021.08. 28.21262763 2021
Citations: 26



When to collect resting-state data: The influence of odor on post-task resting-state connectivity
C Cecchetto, FPS Fischmeister, JL Reichert, D Bagga, V Schpf
Neuroimage 191, 361-366 2019
Citations: 22



Recent smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19: a preregistered, cross-sectional study
RC Gerkin, K Ohla, MG Veldhuizen, PV Joseph, CE Kelly, AJ Bakke, ...
2020
Citations: 21



Olfactory meta-cognition in individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms: the differential role of common and social odors
E Dal B, C Gentili, A Castellani, C Tripodi, FPS Fischmeister, ...
Journal of affective disorders 308, 259-267 2022
Citations: 15