The Smell of Age: Perception and Discrimination of Body Odors of Different Ages

Mitro, Susanna D.; Gordon, Amy R.; Olsson, Mats Joakim Robert; Lundström, Johan N.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038110

Cited by 114 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In some passerine species, for example, structural plumage coloration, ultraviolet signals, and song performance correlate with male age and possibly influence female mate preferences (Siefferman and Hill 2005;Budden and Dickinson 2009;Kipper and Kiefer 2010), and foot color of blue-footed boobies is a dynamic sexually selected ornament that loses intensity with age (Torres and Velando 2003. Olfactory cues could also be used; mice and humans can use smell to discriminate between differently aged conspecifics (Mitro et al 2012), and some birds discriminate among conspecifics on the basis of their odor (Bonadonna and Nevitt 2004;Strandh et al 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive effects of male and female age on extra-pair paternity in a socially monogamous seabird

Ramos

Nunziata

Lance

et al. 2014

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Females sometimes obtain older sires for their offspring through extra-pair interactions, but how female age influences paternity is largely unexplored and interactive effects across the age span of both sexes have not been analyzed. To test whether female choice of sire age varies with female age in the blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii), we examined associations between ages of both partners and the probability of extrapair paternity (EPP) in 350 broods of parents up to 22 years old in a single breeding season. Extra-pair paternity enables a female to select an alternative sire for her offspring and could function to avoid or achieve particular combinations of parental ages. A male age×female age interaction revealed that in young females (≤4 years), EPP decreased with increasing age of the social partner, whereas in old females (≥8 years), it increased. Moreover, sires of extra-pair (EP) chicks of young females paired to young males were on average 6.33 years older than the females' social partners. Since female boobies control copulatory access, this pattern could imply that young females choose old sires for their proven genetic quality and that old females avoid very old males because matings with them may risk infertility or genetic defects in offspring. Taking female age into account and observing across the whole age span may be necessary for understanding female age-based mate choice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive effects of male and female age on extra-pair paternity in a socially monogamous seabird

Ramos

Nunziata

Lance

et al. 2014

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…The natural body odor of humans consists of a wide range of volatile and non-volatile compounds (Zeng et al, 1996) that carry cues conveying such disparate information as individual, gender, age, or kin identity (Weisfeld et al, 2003; Lundstrom et al, 2009; Mitro et al, 2012), physiological, stress, and disease states (McCulloch et al, 2006), and may direct mate selection and parental investment (Lundstrom and Jones-Gotman, 2009). Indeed, most of the information that humans attain by visual and auditory means are available in chemical signals and, even for humans, these chemical signals may convey much more information and influence behavior in ways that are still not appreciated (Shepherd, 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal status regulates cortical responses to the body odor of newborns

Lundström¹,

Mathe²,

Schaal³

et al. 2013

Front. Psychol.

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Studies in non-human mammals have identified olfactory signals as prime mediators of mother-infant bonding and they have been linked with maternal attitudes and behavior in our own species as well. However, although the neuronal network processing infant cues has been studied for visual and auditory signals; to date, no such information exists for chemosensory signals. We contrasted the cerebral activity underlying the processing of infant odor properties in 15 women newly given birth for the first time and 15 women not given birth while smelling the body odor of unfamiliar 2 day-old newborn infants. Maternal status-dependent activity was demonstrated in the thalamus when exposed to the body odor of a newly born infant. Subsequent regions of interest analyses indicated that dopaminergic neostriatal areas are active in maternal-dependent responses. Taken together, these data suggests that body odors from 2 day-old newborns elicit activation in reward-related cerebral areas in women, regardless of their maternal status. These tentative data suggests that certain body odors might act as a catalyst for bonding mechanisms and highlights the need for future research on odor-dependent mother-infant bonding using parametric designs controlling for biological saliency and general odor perception effects.

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“…After they had put on the white cotton t-shirt supplied, donors could also wear their personal clothes if they were clean (and fragrance free). Body odors were collected on the cotton pads attached to their armpits (Alho et al 2015;Mitro et al 2012). Donors wore the t-shirts for periods of 4 hours.…”

Section: Sampling Of Donors' Body Odormentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Masculine Men Smell Better? An Association Between Skin Color Masculinity and Female Preferences for Body Odor

et al. 2017

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2 Do masculine men smell better? AbstractA recent study claimed face skin color as a sexually dimorphic variable that influences attractiveness preferences in mate choice. Thereby, skin color may assume the role of a mate quality signal influencing attractiveness preferences. As body odor is linked to attractiveness, this study aimed to explore whether the odors of men with more masculine facial skin color would be evaluated more positively than odors from less masculine men. Female raters were presented with body odors of 18 men and were asked to rate them in various characteristics.Multilevel modeling revealed that the odors of the donors with more masculine color were rated not only as more attractive, more pleasant, and sexier, but also healthier. This indicates that odor associated with men with more masculine skin color is attractive, just as other sexually dimorphic traits. Furthermore, we found a negative relation between skin color masculinity and perceived odor maleness. Regarding this last finding, a new discussion is introduced with respect to the influence of cognitive stereotypes in odor judgments.Altogether, the study supports the possibility that chemosensory signals may be communicating signs of mate quality associated with masculinity.

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The Smell of Age: Perception and Discrimination of Body Odors of Different Ages

Cited by 114 publications

References 49 publications

Interactive effects of male and female age on extra-pair paternity in a socially monogamous seabird

Interactive effects of male and female age on extra-pair paternity in a socially monogamous seabird

Maternal status regulates cortical responses to the body odor of newborns

Do Masculine Men Smell Better? An Association Between Skin Color Masculinity and Female Preferences for Body Odor

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