A novel, short and easy-to-perform method to evaluate newborns’ social olfactory preferences

Humans’ early olfactory perception has been studied mainly within the framework of mother–offspring interactions and only a few studies have focused on newborns’ abilities to discriminate body odors per se. The aim of this study was to develop a method to evaluate olfactory social preferences of inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animal cognition 2020-09, Vol.23 (5), p.843-850
Main Authors: André, Vanessa, Henry, Séverine, Vuillemin, Adelyne, Beuchée, Alain, Sizun, Jacques, Roué, Jean-Michel, Lemasson, Alban, Misery, Laurent, Hausberger, Martine, Durier, Virginie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal biology
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Body odors
Chest
Cognitive science
Cognitive Sciences
Equivalence
Gauze
Impregnation
Infants
Life Sciences
Methods Paper
Neonates
Neurons and Cognition
Neuroscience
Newborn babies
Odor
Odors
Offspring
Olfactory perception
Olfactory preferences
Psychology and behavior
Psychology Research
Vertebrate Zoology
Zoology
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Summary:Humans’ early olfactory perception has been studied mainly within the framework of mother–offspring interactions and only a few studies have focused on newborns’ abilities to discriminate body odors per se. The aim of this study was to develop a method to evaluate olfactory social preferences of infants at term-equivalent age. Twenty dyads of infants (10 born preterm and 10 born at term) at term-equivalent age and their mothers were included. We analyzed the behavioral reactions of infants to their mother's upper-chest odor (that bears social, non-food related information). The two impregnated gauzes and a control gauze were presented to the infants for 10 s each, in a random order. We compared two durations of gauze impregnation: 30 min and 12 h. This study reveals that mothers’ upper chest emits sufficient olfactory information to induce reactions in infants born full-term or born preterm and that a short impregnation is preferable to evaluate their perception of body odors, notably for those born preterm.
ISSN:1435-9448
1435-9456
DOI:10.1007/s10071-020-01397-w