Two-day-old newborn infants recognise their mother by her axillary odour

Marín, Miguel; Rapisardi, Gherardo; Tani, Franca

doi:10.1111/apa.12905

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Selectiveness for the mother's odour increases with age and suckling experience: 2-day-olds respond randomly, whereas greater than 6-day-olds turn longer to their mother's breast odour [49], while motor activity change reveals such differentiation from day 2 [57]. Finally, the mother's neck [57] and axillae [45,124,125] may also emit informative odours.…”

Section: Development Of Odour-based Social Cognition (A) From Discriminating Parts To Recognizing Whole Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

Schaal

Saxton

Loos

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The impact of the olfactory sense is regularly apparent across development. The fetus is bathed in amniotic fluid (AF) that conveys the mother's chemical ecology. Transnatal olfactory continuity between the odours of AF and milk assists in the transition to nursing. At the same time, odours emanating from the mammary areas provoke appetitive responses in newborns. Odours experienced from the mother's diet during breastfeeding, and from practices such as pre-mastication, may assist in the dietary transition at weaning. In parallel, infants are attracted to and recognize their mother's odours; later, children are able to recognize other kin and peers based on their odours. Familiar odours, such as those of the mother, regulate the child's emotions, and scaffold perception and learning through non-olfactory senses. During juvenility and adolescence, individuals become more sensitive to some bodily odours, while the timing of adolescence itself has been speculated to draw from the chemical ecology of the family unit. Odours learnt early in life and within the family niche continue to influence preferences as mate choice becomes relevant. Olfaction thus appears significant in turning on, sustaining and, in cases when mother odour is altered, disturbing adaptive reciprocity between offspring and carer during the multiple transitions of development between birth and adolescence. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Olfactory communication in humans’.

show abstract

Section: Development Of Odour-based Social Cognition (A) From Discriminating Parts To Recognizing Whole Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

Schaal

Saxton

Loos

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Positive Increase in [Hb O 2 ] over the left orbito-frontal region and sniffing movements of the alae nasi (Marin et al, 2015). No increase in resting energy expenditure (Marom et al, 2012).…”

Section: Vanillamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moves head nearer to the stimulus Positive Allam et al, 2006;André et al, 2020;Davis & Porter, 1991;Faas et al, 2015;Marin et al, 2015;Marlier & Schaal, 2005;Marlier et al, 1998aMarlier et al, , 1998bMarlier et al, 1997;Schaal et al, 1995Schaal et al, , 1998 Turns head toward the stimulus Eyes turning toward the odorant Positive André et al, 2020 Mouth movement…”

Section: Head Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In rat pups, odor activation recruits a limited set of bulbar zones during the first 3 postnatal days, but bulbar activation increases to almost adult levels on the 15th day of life (Astic & Saucier, 1981). Several methodologies have been described to evaluate the newborns' olfactory perception based on behavioral responses (Allam et al, 2006;André et al, 2018;Anunziata et al, 2020;Contreras et al, 2013;Davis & Porter, 1991;Engen et al, 1963;Faas et al, 2000Faas et al, , 2013Faas et al, , 2015Marlier & Schaal, 2005;Marin et al, 1998bMarin et al, , 2015 and physiological responses (Anunziata et al, 2020;Aoyama et al, 2010;Arichi et al, 2013;Bartocci et al, 2000Bartocci et al, , 2001Engen et al, 1963). This research sought to carry out a systematic review of the methods for investigating the olfactory perception of newborns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Olfactory sensory and perceptual evaluation in newborn infants: A systematic review

Tristão

Lauand

Costa

et al. 2021

Developmental Psychobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fetuses are able to process olfactory stimuli present in the womb and continue to show a preference for these odors for months after birth. Despite the accumulated knowledge about their early ability to perceive odors, there is a lack of validated scales for odor response in newborns. The evaluation of reactions of the olfactory system to environmental stimuli in infants has been defined by methodological theoretical approaches of experimental and clinical assessment tools. These approaches are mainly based on psychophysical approaches and predominantly use behavioral and physiological measures. Examples can be found in studies describing early abilities of newborn babies for behaviors or heart rate variability showing memory of maternal food preferences or mother's breast milk. This systematic review aimed to determine whether validated odor assessment tools can be feasibly used in studies. Particularly in light of the current COVID‐19 pandemic and evidence of associated olfactory impairment resulting from SARS‐COV‐2 infection, the study is also motivated by the need for tools to assess olfactory function in neonates.

show abstract

“…There is a growing evidence that, starting from early infancy, body odor discrimination affects various social interactions, often in a context-specific manner. As early as on the second day of life, breastfed newborns are able to distinguish their own mother’s body odor (Marin, Rapisardi, & Tani, 2015) by turning their heads preferentially toward the odor sample of their own mother compared with that of an unfamiliar, lactating woman; such preferential head orientation is still present in breastfed newborns at 2 weeks of age (Cernoch & Porter, 1985). Not only do newborns recognize their mothers’ body odor, they also appear to be soothed by it in times of distress (Sullivan & Toubas, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age and Pubertal Status-Related Changes in Reports of Perception of Personal Odors

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As previously suggested, preferences for kin body odor might undergo an adaptive change over the course of puberty in order to avoid potential inbreeding, resulting in aversion to body odor of the opposite-gender kin as individuals mature sexually. However, studies based on mutual body odor aversion are rather inconclusive. We therefore investigated whether children's reports of individuals smelling good or bad differed as a function of age and pubertal status. We asked 219 children (94 male) aged 10 to 15 years to assess their pubertal development using a standardized measure and to name individuals they thought smelled good or bad. Results of the present study show that the older the girls were, the more likely they were to name males than females among nice-smelling people. Further, in both girls and boys alike, children with higher puberty scores were more likely to name children than adults. Neither in girls nor in boys did we observe any concurrent effect of age or pubertal status on children's reports of persons thought to smell bad. Irrespective of whether these changes are driven by age itself or age-related phenomena, these results suggest a shift toward a more general positive attitude to peers rather than active kin avoidance.

show abstract

Two-day-old newborn infants recognise their mother by her axillary odour

Abstract: Two-day-old breastfeeding newborn infants who experienced skin-to-skin contact with their mothers were able to recognise their axillary odour.

Cited by 10 publications

References 21 publications

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

Olfactory sensory and perceptual evaluation in newborn infants: A systematic review

Age and Pubertal Status-Related Changes in Reports of Perception of Personal Odors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About