Maternal odor reduces the neural response to fearful faces in human infants

Jessen, Sarah

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100858

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Although speculative, a possibility is that the psychobiological state of postpartum leads to the release of a common pattern of chemical compounds in the body odor of postparturient women, to which infants would have responded categorically. In any case, a more specific response to the mother's body odor was reported in older infants during the processing of emotional facial expressions (Jessen, 2020). Compared to the body odor of another mother (or a control odor), the exposure to their own-mother's body odor reduced the typical neural response for fear faces in 7-month-olds, suggesting that maternal body odor can impact emotional learning in infancy (Jessen, 2020), although the underpinning mechanisms remain unclear.…”

Section: Developmental Aspects: Olfaction-to-vision Influences In Infancymentioning

confidence: 84%

Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors

et al. 2021

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A recent body of research has emerged regarding the interactions between olfaction and other sensory channels to process social information. The current review examines the influence of body odors on face perception, a core component of human social cognition. First, we review studies reporting how body odors interact with the perception of invariant facial information (i.e., identity, sex, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and dominance). Although we mainly focus on the influence of body odors based on axillary odor, we also review findings about specific steroids present in axillary sweat (i.e., androstenone, androstenol, androstadienone, and estratetraenol). We next survey the literature showing body odor influences on the perception of transient face properties, notably in discussing the role of body odors in facilitating or hindering the perception of emotional facial expression, in relation to competing frameworks of emotions. Finally, we discuss the developmental origins of these olfaction-to-vision influences, as an emerging literature indicates that odor cues strongly influence face perception in infants. Body odors with a high social relevance such as the odor emanating from the mother have a widespread influence on various aspects of face perception in infancy, including categorization of faces among other objects, face scanning behavior, or facial expression perception. We conclude by suggesting that the weight of olfaction might be especially strong in infancy, shaping social perception, especially in slow-maturing senses such as vision, and that this early tutoring function of olfaction spans all developmental stages to disambiguate a complex social environment by conveying key information for social interactions until adulthood.

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Section: Developmental Aspects: Olfaction-to-vision Influences In Infancymentioning

confidence: 84%

Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors

et al. 2021

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“…The presence of the scent of the mother alone has also been demonstrated to decrease the threat response in children (Jessen, 2020). In children, as found in rodent research, the presence of maternal stimuli suppresses amygdala reactivity, with this effect waning with maturation (Gee et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevated infant cortisol is necessary but not sufficient for transmission of environmental risk to infant social development: Cross-species evidence of mother–infant physiological social transmission

et al. 2020

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Environmental adversity increases child susceptibility to disrupted developmental outcomes, but the mechanisms by which adversity can shape development remain unclear. A translational cross-species approach was used to examine stress-mediated pathways by which poverty-related adversity can influence infant social development. Findings from a longitudinal sample of low-income mother–infant dyads indicated that infant cortisol (CORT) on its own did not mediate relations between early-life scarcity-adversity exposure and later infant behavior in a mother-child interaction task. However, maternal CORT through infant CORT served as a mediating pathway, even when controlling for parenting behavior. Findings using a rodent “scarcity-adversity” model indicated that pharmacologically blocking pup corticosterone (CORT, rodent equivalent to cortisol) in the presence of a stressed mother causally prevented social transmission of scarcity-adversity effects on pup social behavior. Furthermore, pharmacologically increasing pup CORT without the mother present was not sufficient to disrupt pup social behavior. Integration of our cross-species results suggests that elevated infant CORT may be necessary, but without elevated caregiver CORT, may not be sufficient in mediating the effects of environmental adversity on development. These findings underscore the importance of considering infant stress physiology in relation to the broader social context, including caregiver stress physiology, in research and interventional efforts.

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“…The presence of a fear odour facilitates the detection of fearful expressions over other negative expressions (Kamiloglu et al, 2018 ; cf. Jessen, 2020 ). Meanwhile, Zhou and Chen ( 2009 ) found that the chemosignal of fearful sweat biased women toward interpreting ambiguous facial expressions as more fearful, but has no effect when the facial emotion was more obvious (see also Prehn-Kristensen et al, 2009 ).…”

Section: The Influence Of a Person’s Natural Body Odour On Multisensory Person Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The scent of attraction and the smell of success: crossmodal influences on person perception

Spence

2021

Cogn. Research

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In recent decades, there has been an explosion of research into the crossmodal influence of olfactory cues on multisensory person perception. Numerous peer-reviewed studies have documented that a variety of olfactory stimuli, from ambient malodours through to fine fragrances, and even a range of chemosensory body odours can influence everything from a perceiver’s judgments of another person’s attractiveness, age, affect, health/disease status, and even elements of their personality. The crossmodal and multisensory contributions to such effects are reviewed and the limitations/peculiarities of the research that have been published to date are highlighted. At the same time, however, it is important to note that the presence of scent (and/or the absence of malodour) can also influence people’s (i.e., a perceiver’s) self-confidence which may, in turn, affect how attractive they appear to others. Several potential cognitive mechanisms have been put forward to try and explain such crossmodal/multisensory influences, and some of the neural substrates underpinning these effects have now been characterized. At the end of this narrative review, a number of the potential (and actual) applications for, and implications of, such crossmodal/multisensory phenomena involving olfaction are outlined briefly.

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Maternal odor reduces the neural response to fearful faces in human infants

Cited by 24 publications

References 55 publications

Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors

Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors

Elevated infant cortisol is necessary but not sufficient for transmission of environmental risk to infant social development: Cross-species evidence of mother–infant physiological social transmission

The scent of attraction and the smell of success: crossmodal influences on person perception

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