Sensitivity to contamination of food odours depends on hunger and attention

Detection of deviant notes in food odours protects against accidental contaminant ingestion, but this risk needs to be weighed against the potential cost of starvation. This study therefore investigated if sensitivity to odour deviation is modulated by metabolic state. Participants (N = 36) judged the perceptual dominance of a target odour (food/non-food) in an odour mixture during hunger and satiety. We show that 1) contamination sensitivity is higher for food than non-food targets and that 2) this difference increases further during hunger. These findings indicate a heightened deviance sensitivity for food odours, which persists even when attention is modulated away from the food target. The increasing contamination sensitivity during hunger may indicate higher attentiveness to deviance in situations where food intake is likely. This study thus highlights the vital role of metabolic state as a modulator of olfactory perception, and its role in regulating food intake.