Olfaction and human neonatal behaviour: clinical implications

Abstract

About 1–2% of the human genome is allocated to production of receptors for the olfactory epithelium–a hint as to the possible importance of this chemical sense, which includes two anatomically distinct systems: the main olfactory system with sensory cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, and the vomeronasal organ with sensory cells on the nasal septum. In adults, individual odours may influence mate preferences and a growing body of evidence indicates that naturally occurring odours play an important role in the mediation of the infant's behaviour. Even foetal olfactory learning seems to occur and breast odours from the mother exert a pheromone‐like effect at the newborn's first attempt to locate the nipple. Newborns are generally responsive to breast odours produced by lactating women. Olfactory recognition may be implicated in the early stages of the mother‐infant attachment process, when the newborns learn to recognize the own mother's unique odour signature–a process possibly facilitated by the high norepinephrine release and the arousal of the locus coeruleus at birth. New knowledge about human odour physiology may have diagnostic and therapeutic implications–the initiation and stabilization of breastfeeding and termination of apnoeic spells are mentioned as examples.