The aim of the first experiment was to investigate in a highly time-sensitive manner (analyzing chemosensory event-related potentials; CSERPs) whether and how chemosensory anxiety signals are processed by the brain. In the second experiment non-clinical highly socially anxious participants were investigated. In order to increase the statistical power of this first time-sensitive investigation of neuronal processing of anxiety sweat, the first experiment was analyzed independently of the second experiment. However, as a result, it will not be possible to directly compare the CSERPs of non-socially anxious and socially anxious participants. It was hypothesized that chemosensory anxiety signals in general are processed advantageously by the human brain (experiment 1). In addition, the processing of chemosensory anxiety signals in socially anxious participants should resemble their attentional bias towards potential social threat (experiment 2).
