ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2024
The scent of cuteness-neural signatures of infant body odors.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- The trigeminal function questionnaire (TriFunQ): a tool for clinical and research use.Chemical senses · 2026Article
- Breastfeeding, bonding, and olfaction: unlocking the potential of mother-infant odour exchange.EBioMedicine · 2026Review
- Improved olfactory function following high-frequency transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation in post-COVID-19 patients with olfactory dysfunction.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Article
- Redefining Health-Related Fitness: The Adaptive Ability to Foster Survival Possibilities.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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Abstract
The smell of the own baby is a salient cue for human kin recognition and bonding. We hypothesized that infant body odors function like other cues of the Kindchenschema by recruiting neural circuits of pleasure and reward. In two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we presented infantile and post-pubertal body odors to nulliparae and mothers (N = 78). All body odors increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response and functional connectivity in circuits related to olfactory perception, pleasure and reward. Neural activation strength in pleasure and reward areas positively correlated with perceptual ratings across all participants. Compared to body odor of post-pubertal children, infant body odors specifically enhanced BOLD signal and functional connectivity in reward and pleasure circuits, suggesting that infantile body odors prime the brain for prosocial interaction. This supports the idea that infant body odors are part of the Kindchenschema. The additional observation of functional connectivity being related to maternal and kin state speaks for experience-dependent priming.
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