The EEG data reveal that the processing of chemosensory anxiety signals engages significantly more neuronal resources than the chemosensory processing of sport sweat. Thereby, the results are in line with recent brain imaging studies [11], [12], demonstrating that the processing of chemosensory anxiety or stress signals requires more neuronal resources than the processing of body odor signals sampled in a non-emotional control condition. While the chemosensory stimuli used in the brain imaging studies were perceived to have a weak odor, most of the participants in the present experiment could not detect an odor when presented with the sweat samples. Therefore, the present study strongly supports the conclusion drawn by Mujica-Parodi et al. [12] and Prehn-Kristensen et al. [11], that the neuronal processing of chemosensory anxiety signals is not consciously mediated.
