Olfactory and emotional stimulus evaluation in patients with major depression

The present study aims to clarify whether a deviant stimulus evaluation in patients with major depression (MD) depends on the stimulus modality and/ o r the stimulus valence by investigating their affective reaction to olfacto ry and visual stimuli. 26 MD-patients were examined and compared to an age and sex-matched control group. The participants were asked to describe thei r emotional reactions to 10 odors and 20 pictures from the international Af fective Picture System (LAPS) on three dimensions (valence, arousal dominan ce). All stimuli were classified by their valence into positive, neutral an d negative ones. Depressive patients responded with a higher arousal to neg ative stimuli than controls. This effect did not vary with the stimulus mod ality. Moreover, independent of the stimulus valence, depressives described themselves as more submissive than the controls in response to both stimul us qualities. No group differences were found for the valence dimension.