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Updated: Aug 15, 2026
09:00
Olfactory Behavioral Testing in the Adult Mouse
Published on: January 28, 2009
Olfactory aversion: notes on procedure, with speculations on its mechanism of effect
1South Island Consulting, P.O. Box 23036, #4-313 Cook Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8V 4Z8, Canada.
Sexual Abuse : a Journal of Research and Treatment
|October 27, 2001
Summary
This study explores using self-administered noxious agents, like olfactory aversion, to manage deviant sexual arousal. A pain-producing agent method is presented as the most practical approach for behavioral modification.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychopharmacology
Background:
- Deviant sexual arousal can be a challenging clinical issue.
- Behavioral interventions are explored for managing such conditions.
- Self-administered noxious agents offer a potential therapeutic avenue.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a procedure for olfactory aversion therapy.
- To present data on the efficacy of different noxious agents.
- To discuss mechanisms underlying olfactory aversion and cognitive mediation.
Main Methods:
- Description of a self-administered olfactory aversion procedure.
- Presentation and discussion of data from two prior publications.
- Analysis of nausea-producing versus pain-producing agents.
Main Results:
- The pain-producing agent method is identified as simplest and least ambiguous.
- Olfactory aversion shows promise in suppressing deviant sexual arousal.
- Cognitive mediation may play a role beyond simple conditioning.
Conclusions:
- Self-administered olfactory aversion, particularly with pain-producing agents, is a viable intervention.
- The mechanism of effect likely involves more than basic conditioning.
- Further research into cognitive factors is warranted.
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Conditioned taste aversion, also known as sauce béarnaise syndrome, is a phenomenon in which an individual develops an aversion to a certain food taste following a negative experience, typically illness. This form of aversion is a type of classical conditioning in which the taste of the food (conditioned stimulus, CS) is associated with the experience of illness (unconditioned stimulus, UCS).
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