Welcome to our December Newsletter!

As the year comes to a close, we invite you to explore the progress of the CLIO project, led by the CNRS and the University of Reims, through an interview with Marylou Mantel.

Marylou Mantel – CLIO3 Project

Marylou Mantel, associate professor in neuroscience and coordinator of the third phase of the study on the understanding of olfactory pleasure, shares the fascinating discoveries of this interdisciplinary study, blending genetics, neuroscience, and social sciences.

Per Fumum Endowment Fund: Could you explain what the third phase of the study entails?

Marylou Mantel:
“In this third phase, we integrate the influence of social factors. For instance, how perceptions of others and their feedback on a scent or perfume can affect our own perception and hedonic experience. After exploring genetic and brain-related aspects in the earlier phases, we are now adding this social dimension to provide a comprehensive understanding of olfactory pleasure.”

Per Fumum Endowment Fund: What are the main findings that led to this focus on the social aspect in the third phase?

Marylou Mantel:
“We observed that individuals who are highly sensitive to a specific molecule, beta-ionone (associated with the scent of violet), tend to prefer perfumes with lower concentrations of it, while those who are less sensitive prefer perfumes with a higher concentration. This led us to consider that olfactory preferences are not solely influenced by genetics but also by social influence and the choices of others.”

Per Fumum Endowment Fund: How do you combine different disciplines (genetics, neuroscience, anthropology, and social sciences) in this study?

Marylou Mantel:
“I would even add psychology, which is also part of this project. We combine disciplines in various ways. The main collaborators of the project—Mustapha Ben Safi, Denis Pierron, and myself—each bring unique expertise. Denis Pierron contributes his expertise in genetics and anthropology; Moustafa Bensafi, in neuroscience and psychology; and myself, in neuroscience, psychology, and social aspects, along with the Reims laboratory, which specializes in social psychology. For the third phase, we will also bring in a social psychology expert.

This complementarity allows us to apply a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to examine olfactory perception from multiple perspectives. Interdisciplinarity is thus at the heart of the project, making it an especially rich and comprehensive study on olfactory pleasure.”