The overall goal of this proposal is to understand how an individual's experience of chemical exposure is related on the one hand to the sensory and physiological signals resulting from exposures to volatile compounds and on the other hand to psychological processes involved in perception, memory, and judgment. The proposed research pursue this goal by using an information-processing analysis of chemosensory perception as a unifying framework. Such an analysis seeks to describe how individuals process, combine, and interpret both the primary (sensory) and secondary (physiological) signals from chemosensory exposure and to understand how certain variables, such as personality factors, attentional and memory-retrieval strategies, and attributional tendencies, produce variations in the response. The three specific aims of the proposed research are: (1) to examine the role of selected antecedent, subject-based factors in producing variations in response to volatile organic compound (VOC) exposure, specifically, the roles of pre-existing dispositional factors such as negative affectivity and of pre-existing processing structures or mental models; (2) to examine the role of situational factors in producing variations in response to VOC exposures, specifically, the roles of instructional manipulation, multi- task processing, and social cues that guide the content and direction of attention during exposure to a volatile compound; and, (3) to examine the role of attributions (and misattributions) pertaining to arousal in producing variations in response to VOC exposure, specifically, the degree to which diffuse arousal tends to be prejudicially attributed to VOC exposure. The research will increase our understanding of the variation in human chemosensory perception. It has important implications for efforts to alleviate people's adverse responses to volatile compounds in indoor and outdoor air, and it may be of particular utility for addressing the higher incidence among women of adverse responses to low-level chemical exposures. The results can also provide information needed to evaluate the locus of responses (i.e., sensory, physiological, psychological) to volatiles that are currently advocated as alternative therapies.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC003704-04
Application #
6379432
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Program Officer
Davis, Barry
Project Start
1998-04-01
Project End
2002-03-31
Budget Start
2001-04-01
Budget End
2002-03-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$154,028
Indirect Cost
Name
Monell Chemical Senses Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
JaƩn, Cristina; Dalton, Pamela (2014) Asthma and odors: the role of risk perception in asthma exacerbation. J Psychosom Res 77:302-8
Petrova, Maja; Diamond, Jeanmarie; Schuster, Benno et al. (2008) Evaluation of trigeminal sensitivity to ammonia in asthmatics and healthy human volunteers. Inhal Toxicol 20:1085-92
Dalton, Pamela; Maute, Christopher; Oshida, Akiko et al. (2008) The Use of Semantic Differential Scaling to Define the Multi-Dimensional Representation of Odors. J Sens Stud 23:485-497
Dalton, Pamela; Dilks, Daniel; Hummel, Thomas (2006) Effects of long-term exposure to volatile irritants on sensory thresholds, negative mucosal potentials, and event-related potentials. Behav Neurosci 120:180-7
Smeets, Monique A M; Kroeze, Jan H A; Dalton, Pamela H (2006) Setting occupational exposure limits in humans: contributions from the field of experimental psychology. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 79:299-307
Chen, Denise; Dalton, Pamela (2005) The effect of emotion and personality on olfactory perception. Chem Senses 30:345-51
Nagata, Hisanori; Dalton, Pamela; Doolittle, Nadine et al. (2005) Psychophysical isolation of the modality responsible for detecting multimodal stimuli: a chemosensory example. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 31:101-9
Diamond, Jeanmarie; Breslin, Paul A S; Doolittle, Nadine et al. (2005) Flavor processing: perceptual and cognitive factors in multi-modal integration. Chem Senses 30 Suppl 1:i232-3
Diamond, Jeanmarie; Dalton, Pamela; Doolittle, Nadine et al. (2005) Gender-specific olfactory sensitization: hormonal and cognitive influences. Chem Senses 30 Suppl 1:i224-5
Dalton, P; Gould, M; Girten, B et al. (2003) Preventing annoyance from odors in spaceflight: a method for evaluating the sensory impact of rodent housing. J Appl Physiol 95:2113-21

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