How Are the Senses Related to Emotional States?

Research has shown that anxiety in men can result in an increased ability to detect odors — even faint odors. Other research subjects' sense of taste has been heightened when a viscerally disgusting scenario was described to them, although the same reaction did not occur when they were presented with a scenario involving them being cheated out of money. There also is evidence that, like anxiety, rage can result in the sharpening of some physical senses and reduce a person's ability to feel pain.

More about the the senses:

• A woman's sense of smell can rise with elevated estrogen levels. When estrogen levels drop, so can a woman's ability to detect odors.


• Some people suffer from ofactory hallucinations, in which they smell things to which they aren't actually being exposed.


• People who are suffering from depression might experience increased body aches and pains.