Objective: Emotions play an important role in consumers' perception of a sensory experience. The objective of this work was to investigate the ability of basic skin care formulas (i.e. without interference of odour, colour and packaging) and pillar ingredients (i.e. emollients and rheology modifiers) to elicit emotions. Another objective was to track, as claimed by neurocosmetics, the possible effect of formulas to trigger emotions from their direct biochemical effects on the skin.Methods: Standard methodologies were mobilized, combining subjective and behavioural parameters (i.e. verbatim, prosody and gesture). Sense and Story methodology based on a collection of metaphoric verbatim was conducted after an induction phase. In addition, an experimental electrophysiological real-time visualization method was tried as a first experience in cosmetics. Finally, the ability of formulations with emotional benefits to modulate the release of neuropeptides by sensory neurons was evaluated on a 3D human model (epidermis co-cultured with sensory neurons).Results: Skin care formulas were shown to play a role in emotional potential and the types of emotion generated, while changing one ingredient mostly acted on the intensity of the emotions. Verbatim provided contrasted answers depending on the protocol, highlighting the interest of non-verbal approaches to detect subtle effects. The in vitro model substantiated physiological effects of skin care formulas with emotional potential on human skin sensory neuron activity.Conclusion: Emotions were impacted by the change in ingredients and were better captured through non-verbal methods.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to demonstrate the specific nature of well-being induced by a facial skincare by deciphering its physiological and psychological impacts out of a therapeutic context. MethodsObjective and subjective evaluations were performed on two groups of healthy participants. One group of 32 participants received 1-h facial skincare, while the second group of 31 participants were subjected to a resting condition during the same period. Electroencephalography, electrocardiography, electromyography, and respiratory rate measurements were assessed before and after both experimental conditions. Prosody and semantic analyses were also performed to evaluate the emotional perception in both groups. ResultsPhysiological relaxation was observed after both experimental sessions; however, the effect was higher after the facial skincare. The cerebral, cardiac, respiratory, and muscular relaxation induced by facial skincare was 42%, 13%, 12%, and 17% higher, respectively, than that induced by the resting condition. In addition, non-verbal and verbal assessments showed that positive emotions were more markedly associated with the perception of facial skincare. ConclusionThe comparison between parameters recorded after a rest period allowed us to distinguish the physiological and psychological signature of facial skincare. Moreover, our results suggest an involvement of positive emotions in the physiological relaxation enhancement. All these observations contribute to the very scarce data available on the specific profile of well-being associated with facial skincare.

Background Sensitive skin is a common condition of hyper-reactivity to external stimuli, e.g. heat or abrasion. The symptoms are subjective but can be measured using validated emotional and technical methods. Avene water has several beneficial effects on the skin. In vitro studies indicated that the active component of this natural spring water, Aquaphilus dolomiae extract-G3 (ADE-G3), modulates cutaneous sensitivity via an anaesthetic-like mechanism. Objectives To assess facial skin reactivity after repeated application of two formulations containing ADE-G3. Methods In open-label studies, healthy subjects with sensitive facial skin applied cream or balm twice daily for 84 days. The severity of skin sensitivity was measured using the Sensitive Scale (based on quantifying visible or subjective signs). Subjective responses associated with pain or uncomfortable feeling were assessed by measuring electrodermal response (EDR). This involves measuring variations in skin electrical resistance due to non-conscious physiological changes in activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Subjects were also evaluated for beneficial effects according to a quantitative approach using semantic assessment of a question regarding their skin quality. Evaluations were performed before and after the first application, and after 29/30, 56 and 84 days of twice daily use. Results There was a significant decrease in the EDR after stimuli immediately after the application of both ADE-G3 formulations, which continued to decrease over 84 days (40-50% decrease by D85). Likewise, all physical and functional signs of the Sensitive Scale were significantly decreased immediately after the first application and at all time points tested after treatment. Verbatim analysis revealed a semantic shift, from mainly negative terms on D1 to mainly positive terms at D85 for both tested products. Conclusions These results demonstrated that two formulations containing ADE-G3 reduced skin sensitivity, indicating a decreased activation of the sympathetic nervous system associated with this condition.

Background: There is clear evidence that most of the paradigms that are used in the field of behavioral neuroscience suffer from a lack of reliability mainly because of oversimplification of both testing procedures and interpretations. In the present study we show how an already existing behavioral test, the olfactory habituation / dishabituation task, can be optimized in such a way that animal number and animal distress could be minimized, number/confidence of behavioral outcomes and number of explored behavioral dimensions could be increased. New method: We used ethologically relevant technical and procedural changes associated with videotracking-based automated quantification of sniffing behavior to validate our new setup. Mainly internal and construct validity were challenged through the implementation of a series of simple experiments. Results: We show that the new version of the test: 1) has very good within and inter laboratory replicability, 2) is sensitive to some environmental / experimental factors while insensitive to others, 3) allows investigating hedonism, both state and trait anxiety, efficacy of anxiolytic molecules, acute stress, mental retardation-related social impairments and learning and memory. 4) We also show that interest for both nonsocial and social odors is stable over time which makes repetitive testing possible. Conclusions: This work paves the way for future studies showing how behavioral tests / procedures may be improved by using ethologically relevant changes, in order to question laboratory animals more adequately. Refining behavioral tests may considerably increase predictivity of preclinical tests and, ultimately, help reinforcing translational research.

Chemical submission is increasing by an occurring phenomenon that consists in administering psychoactive substances for criminal intent to an unaware victim. This diversion is usually achieved by adding a drug to the drink of the potential victim. This study aims essentially at providing a sensory method that would allow the detection of the sensory changes due to the drug. The complexity of this study stemmed from the large number of beverages and potential drugs that can be used for this ill-intentioned act. The alcoholic beverages and soft drinks studied here were selected as a result of an on-line survey, followed by a sorting task study, to which various drugs were added. A visual sensory profile was performed for all the different drug-beverage mixtures. The experienced sensory panel agreed on a lexicon of nine attributes that would allow the drug-beverage mixture to be characterized. A multivariate analysis was performed to study the effect of both the sample (drug-beverage pairs) and the panelists on the sensory profile. The pharmaceutical forms of the drug clearly impacted the following attributes: spotted surface, particles on the surface, suspended particles, cloudiness and sediment. The beverages also had an influence on the visual characteristics of the mixtures concerning opacity, color and effervescence.Practical ApplicationResults of this study showed that visual sensory modification of drinks depends on both the drug and the beverage which suggests that the formulation of a drug must be designed to impact different sensory attributes.From a practical standpoint, both the sensory method and the lexicon presented in this article may be useful for researchers when developing drugs as these can be named according to the specific sensory changes created when mixed in beverages.

Epidemiological and experimental data implicate maternal infection and inflammation in the etiology of brain white matter injury, which may lead to cerebral palsy in preterm newborns. Our aim was to investigate motor development of the offspring after maternal administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Wistar rats were intraperitoneally injected with Escherichia coli LPS or saline on gestational days 19 and 20. From birth to 3 weeks, pups were tested for neurobehavioral development, neurological signs and reflexes. From 3 to 6 weeks, motor coordination was investigated. At 4 months, animals were tested for locomotion. Brain myelination was assessed by myelin basic protein immunohistochemistry. Days of appearance of several neurological reflexes were significantly delayed, and neonate LPS pups displayed retarded performance in righting, gait and negative geotaxis. At the juvenile stage, LPS animals showed important impairment in coordination. However, although the LPS group performed worse in most tests, they reached vehicle levels by 5 weeks. At 4 months, LPS animals did not show variations in locomotion performances compared to vehicle. No myelination differences have been observed in the brains at adulthood. Maternal LPS administration results in delayed motor development even though these alterations fade to reach control level by 5 weeks. Motor impairments observed at the early stage in this study could be linked to previously reported hypomyelination of the white matter induced by maternal LPS challenge in the neonates. Finally, the normal myelination shown here at adulthood may explain the functional recovery of the animals and suggest either a potential remyelination of the brain or a delayed myelination in LPS pups.

Learning processes are extensively studied in behavioral neuroscience. As experimental models, Morris Water Maze (MWM) and Spontaneous Alternation (SA) represent two of the most frequently used laboratory tests to respectively address spatial vs non-spatial tasks. Several factors have been shown to impact on those learning, including strain, gender, apparatus, conditioning, vision, lighting conditions and stress level. In order to focus on the later, we compared the acquisition of two learning tasks (MWM and SA) in BALB/c and A/J mice, which are known as fearful and stress-sensitive strains. Here, we report that BALB/c mice exhibited higher performances than A/J mice in the MWM (i.e. spatial reference memory task), whereas A/J mice performed better in the SA (i.e. spatial working memory task). These results indicate dissociated processes in the acquisition of spatial vs non-spatial tasks, and emphasize a varying influence of emotional reactivity on different forms of cognition.

Animal welfare is a growing issue in modern farming systems due to a perceived mismatch between animals’ actual environments and their natural habitats, acknowledgement that animals are sentient beings, and societal awareness not only that animal production matters but also that the production methods matter.[br/] Welfare implies that the biological needs of animals are fulfilled and, more importantly, that the animals feel “well.” What emotions animals can feel is now documented, and methods have been developed to assess how well an animal feels. The welfare of an individual depends on its living environment, genetics, and past experiences, with the result that each individual may perceive a triggering situation differently. Farming system design needs to evolve to encompass the welfare provided to animals based on actual living conditions and the animals’ background. Improvements have been proposed so that it is now possible to integrate animal welfare into farming conditions that meet both animal requirements and societal concerns.

Our external appearance plays a key role in everyday life's social interactions. Hence, taking care of our appearance allows us to adjust and protect ourselves, as well as communicate emotional disposition (i.e. sympathy or aversion) and social information (i.e. values, status). However, some discrete body parts or characteristics appear to be more salient than others in contributing to global body image. For example, authors showed that facial attractiveness is one of the best predictors of overall physical attractiveness and represent one of the primary factors influencing global self-esteem. Make-up is therefore ought to play a major influence in these parameters. Moreover, in a previous study whose subject was to explain the reasons that motivate women to make-up, we showed a high implication of specific psychological traits in correlation with two make-up functions (i.e. psycho-behavioural profiles 'Seduction' and 'Camouflage'; group S and group C, respectively). The purpose of this study was to assess the possible relation between our two psycho-behavioural profiles and some morphological parameters know to be involved in facial attraction (i.e. facial asymmetry and skin visual quality). First of all, our study revealed for women from the group C a greater asymmetry of the lower face (i.e. mouth area) that could be related to a possible larger amount of negative emotional experiences. Concerning make-up behaviour, women from the group S more extensively manipulated their relative facial attractiveness, by using a large range of colours, but also through a significantly longer make-up process used to adjust their visual asymmetry and therefore increase their potential of attractiveness. On the overall, our results suggest that make-up is used differentially, according to stable psychological profiles of women, to manipulate specific visual/morphological facial features involved in attractiveness.

Emotions are now largely recognised as a core element in animal welfare issues. However, convenient indicators to reliably infer emotions are still needed. As such, the availability of behavioural postures analogous to facial expressions in humans would be extremely valuable for animal studies of emotions. The purpose of this paper is to find out stable expressive postures in sheep and to relate these expressive postures with specific emotional contexts. In an initial experiment, we identified discrete ear postures from a comprehensive approach which integrates all theoretically distinguishable ear postures. Four main ear postures were identified: horizontal ears (P posture); ears risen up (R posture); ears pointed backward (B posture); and asymmetric posture (A posture). In a second experiment, we studied how these ear postures were affected by specific emotional states elicited by exposing sheep to experimental situations in which elementary characteristics (ie suddenness and unfamiliarity, negative contrast and controllability) were manipulated. We found that: (i) the horizontal P posture corresponds to a neutral state; (ii) sheep point their ears backward (B posture) when they face unfamiliar and unpleasant uncontrollable situations, hence likely to elicit fear; (iii) they point their ears up (R posture) when facing similar negative situations but controllable, hence likely to elicit anger; and (iv) they expressed the asymmetric A posture in very sudden situations, likely to elicit surprise. By cross-fostering psychological and ethological approaches, we are able to propose an interpretation of ear postures in sheep relative to their emotions.

Suggesting that immune responses could be influenced by psychosocial factors was quite controversial just a couple of decades ago, but the clear demonstration of this relationship made it a commonplace and a core process in health psychology. However, the recent developments in Psychoneuroimmunology emphasize the importance of the reverse process, i.e. the influences of the immune system over the social interactions. In the past decade, the behavioural influence of the active immune system has been clearly established through the action of cytokines on the brain. Such behavioural changes (e.g. decreased general activity, curled-LIP posture, hypophagia) have been related to the onset of a specific motivational state devoted to support recovery processes. However, if social behaviours have received a limited attention, some recent advances reveal some noteworthy relations between immunity and sociality. But despite the many benefits offered by sociality (e.g. food sharing, increase defensive capacities against predators or other threats), one of its main drawbacks is the increased propensity to be exposed to parasites and pathogens. And the more social interactions are intense, the more each social partner is "at risk". Such a potential menace of contamination questions the adaptive functions of sociality and calls for further investigations.The immune-induced changes in social interactions can be considered at two different levels: the level of the immune-activated individual, and the level of the healthy social mates. The present chapter will focus on recent development on immune-related social changes, at both individual and group levels. The first part will present progresses in the understanding of the influence of immunity on the social behaviours displayed by immune-challenged individuals, particularly in relation to changes in their emotional reactivity to social stimuli. A second part will examine the changes in the social behaviours of healthy individuals in response to the exposure to an immune-challenged social partner (e.g. pathogen avoidance strategies). The data will be presented in a comparative perspective and will encompass works on both vertebrates and invertebrates. This comparative approach allows to address the question of the evolutionary roots of this immune-related behavioural changes, and more particularly on the place of the immune system from the construction of the self and the evolution of sociality.

Synopsis Makeup acts and stimulates three of our senses: touch (which encompasses all sensations from the body surface), smell (fragrance), and sight (the process of becoming and looking beautiful). The positive stimulation of these senses by makeup can induce sensory as well as psychological pleasure. In order to understand the relationship of women to their makeup, we interviewed different groups of women on their quality of life and makeup habits. Then, through four standard well‐validated psychometric self‐questionnaires, we examined the possible relation between the need to make up oneself and specific psychological features. Our first results clearly showed that makeup could support two opposite ‘up’ functions, i.e., ‘camouflage’ vs. ‘seduction.’ Concerning their psychological profiles, results showed that women of the functional class ‘camouflage’ are more anxious, defensive, and emotionally unstable compared to those of the functional class ‘seduction,’ who appear to be more sociable, assertive, and extroverted. Further analyses revealed a division of the two classes into subclasses of volunteers with opposed personality and psychological profiles. This new classification allowed us to define more precisely the relations existing within the subjective experience of women during the makeup process. In conclusion, our study revealed that beyond the simple application of colorful products on the face, makeup has two major functional implications depending on specific psychological profiles of women.

Despite the many advantages offered by sociality in animals, one of its main drawbacks is the increased propensity to be exposed to parasites and pathogens. In infection (bacteria and viruses), one of the common symptoms used to describe an animal experiencing an acute inflammation is a "social disinterest". According to the literature, this reduction in social behaviors would be an adaptive feature preventing further contamination. However, if the case of parasitic infection has been extensively studied, concerning inflammatory processes, no direct evidence of a proper isolation of sick animals by healthy conspecifics has been provided. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of endotoxin-induced inflammation (LPS, lipopolysaccharides) on the behavior of healthy conspecifics to verify a possible active social isolation of the immune-challenged animal. In addition, we applied variations to the functional significance of the situation by pre-exposing healthy subjects to unsanitary olfactory cues (i.e., 1,5-diaminopentane, odor of decaying flesh). Observations revealed several results: (1) no agonistic behavior was observed during dyadic encounter, whatever the immune status of the conspecifics or the olfactory stimulation; (2) endotoxin-induced inflammation triggered several behavioral changes in healthy conspecifics: increased inter-individual distance, decreased physical contacts, and changes in the modalities of social exploration (increased proportion of muzzle sniffing and decreased proportion of ano-genital sniffing); (3) these effects were more salient after olfactory priming with 1-,5-diaminopentane. Our data reveal that mice are able to discriminate the "state of sickness" in conspecifics use this information to support pertinent behavioral changes. Moreover, these results support the idea that mice would switch from a "controlled exposure" strategy under standard condition to a "pathogen avoidance" strategy under a specific unsanitary context.

Makeup acts and stimulates three of our senses: touch (which encompasses all sensations from the body surface), smell (fragrance), and sight (the process of becoming and looking beautiful). The positive stimulation of these senses by makeup can induce sensory as well as psychological pleasure. In order to understand the relationship of women to their makeup, we interviewed different groups of women on their quality of life and makeup habits. Then, through four standard well-validated psychometric self-questionnaires, we examined the possible relation between the need to make up oneself and specific psychological features. Our first results clearly showed that makeup could support two opposite "up" functions, i.e., "camouflage" vs "seduction." Concerning their psychological profiles, results showed that women of the functional class "camouflage" are more anxious, defensive, and emotionally unstable compared to those of the functional class "seduction," who appear to be more sociable, assertive, and extroverted. Further analyses revealed a division of the two classes into subclasses of volunteers with opposed personality and psychological profiles. This new classification allowed us to define more precisely the relations existing within the subjective experience of women during the makeup process. In conclusion, our study revealed that beyond the simple application of colorful products on the face, makeup has two major functional implications depending on specific psychological profiles of women.

Theodosius Dobzhansky noted that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution''. The success of species evolution owes much to the complex set of adaptive responses, which they are able to mount when confronted with environmental changes. These changes are perceived through various sensory receptors and trigger a complicated array of physiological responses. As animals have always lived surrounded by pathogenic microorganisms and will continue to do so, invasion of tissues by either bacteria or viruses similarly initiates a set of adaptive responses involving not only the immune system but also the functionally linked nervous system. These responses include behavioral changes including sleepiness, hypophagia, and general withdrawal, and have been found to potentiate the efficiency of the immune system to clear off pathogens. These behavioral changes have been for long commonly considered as the inability to achieve normal activities resulting from a debilitation of the general physical state of the sick individual. On the contrary, sick animals retain the ability to express complex behaviors under specific circumstances. The expression of the behavioral repertoire remains flexible and therefore depends on changes in the situation the sick individual is facing. This flexibility can be interpreted in motivational terms and therefore open the gate to the further study of behavioral dynamics induced by inflammatory processes.

It is quite clear from our daily experiences that psychosocial stress and emotional factors affects immunity and health. Moreover, from the first pioneer studies in the emerging field of study concerning the relations between emotions and immunity, stress has been commonly associated with immune-suppression. However, several evidence reveal a more complex relationship between emotions and immunity, thus offering new insights for the study of the impact of emotional factors in the onset, development or severity of many disorders, including autoimmune diseases. The present review summarizes background data concerning the crosstalk between brain and immune system and emphasizes the role of cytokines (in addition to the extensive influence of cathecolamines and glucocorticoid hormones) as key-molecules and discusses related patents.

Invertebrates, and especially insects, constitute valuable and convenient models for the study of the evolutionary roots of immune-related behaviors. With stable conditions in the nest, high population densities, and frequent interactions, social insects such as ants provide an excellent system for examining the spread of pathogens. The evolutionary success of these species raises questions about the behavioral responses of social insects to an infected nestmate. In this experiment, we tested the behavioral changes of the red wood ant Formica polyctena toward an immune-stimulated nestmate. We used bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharides, LPS) to active the innate immune system of individual worker ants without biasing our observation with possible cues or host-manipulation from a living pathogen. We show that LPS-induced immune activation in ants triggers behavioral changes in nestmates. Contrary to what would be expected, we did not find removal strategies (e.g. agonistic behaviors) or avoidance of the pathogenic source, but rather a balance between a limitation of pathogen dissemination (i.e. decreased trophallaxis and locomotion of the LPS-treated ant), and what could constitute the behavioral basis for a “social vaccination” (i.e. increased grooming). This supports the importance of social interactions in resistance to disease in social insects, and perhaps social animals in general.

Many studies have pointed out the relationships between immunity and depression, supporting a neuroimmune hypothesis of depressive disorders. However, despite the growing interest for such a hypothesis and the amount of clinical and experimental data available, the precise nature of this relationship between immunity and depression remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate further the link between depression and immunity in mice using the modified version of the forced-swimming test. Based on a two-session test, results from our first experiment showed that endotoxin enhanced active defensive behaviours in mice during the first exposure to water, but was associated with increased immobility (i.e., 'behavioural despair') in the subsequent session. In our second experiment, we showed that these effects were blocked by a chronic antidepressant treatment with imipramine. Finally, we suggest a link between immunity and depression, based on the behavioural context in which immune activation takes place. We hypothesize that immune activation, by enhancing reactivity to the negative features of a given situation, increases defensive motivation of subjects, but therefore makes them more vulnerable to the deleterious emotional consequences of failure in defensive strategies.