Correspondence between colour and odour for women in pre‐menopause and post‐menopause

• Published in: Color research and application Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 307 - 314
• Main Authors: Iriguchi, Mayuko, Koda, Hiroki, Masataka, Nobuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.04.2019; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Color matching; colour; cross‐modal correspondence; Hormone replacement therapy; impression menopause odor; Menopause; Odors
• ISSN: 0361-2317; 1520-6378
• DOI: 10.1002/col.22336

Cross‐modal correspondences in the human sensory systems often appear for different levels of sensory inputs, such as colour and odour. However, whether there is hormonal modification of such colour‐odour correspondence has remained unclear. Here, we experimentally investigated the influence of hormonal changes in menopausal women by conducting evaluations of colour and odour impressions, matching tasks between colour and odour, and odor identification tasks, comparing two groups of women: premenopausal and postmenopausal. The results showed that both premenopausal and postmenopausal women had similar impressions and images of colours for odors, while postmenopausal women had significantly lower abilities of odor identification than premenopausal women. This suggested that the degree of conviction about an odor's identification might slightly affect the subjects’ impressions of odors and their corresponding colour choices. Menopause might not directly affect cognitive aspects regarding colour or odor, but might instead affect their perceptions.