The processing of axillary odors unequivocally recruited stronger neuronal activity in females than in males. The intense neuronal processing of body odor signals in females was accompanied by a differential response to the two chemosensory stimuli within the P3 latency range. So far, two studies reported females to respond more sensitively than males to chemosensory anxiety signals [13], [20], whereas other studies did not find any gender differences [11], [12], [15]. However, no study described a processing advantage for chemical signals of emotions in male participants. Even though a larger late positivity within the ERP in females has been observed in response to common odors [34] and socially relevant information (facial expressions of emotions; [35]), null effects of gender in emotional stimulus processing have also been reported (odors: [36]; emotional stimuli: [37]). Here, it is postulated that sex effects in the processing of emotional stimuli are most pronounced for social emotional stimuli [38] and most importantly, for emotional stimuli with a weak perceptional salience [39], [40]. In accordance with this assumption, the stimuli administered in the present study were perceived
