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

Vanessa André (1) , Séverine Henry (1) , Adelyne Vuillemin (1) , Alain Beuchee (2) , Jacques Sizun (3, 4) , Jean-Michel Roué (4, 3) , Alban Lemasson (1) , Laurent Misery (5, 3) , Martine Hausberger (1) , Virginie Durier (1)

1 EthoS - Ethologie animale et humaine
2 LTSI - Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de l'Image
3 LNB - Laboratoire de Neurosciences de Brest
4 CHU BREST Pédiatrie - CHRU de Brest - Département de Pédiatrie
5 Dermato - BREST - Service de dermatologie

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.

Keywords: Methodology; Odor perception; Behavior; Full-term; Preterm; Infants

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]; Cognitive Sciences; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]; Psychology and behavior; Cognitive science; Neuroscience; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Animal biology; Vertebrate Zoology

Vanessa André, Séverine Henry, Adelyne Vuillemin, Alain Beuchee, Jacques Sizun, et al.. A novel, short and easy-to-perform method to evaluate newborns’ social olfactory preferences. Animal Cognition, 2020, 23 (5), pp.843-850. ⟨10.1007/s10071-020-01397-w⟩. ⟨hal-02732989⟩