Babies can begin to learn their mother’s scent while still in utero. New research in the journal Science Advances examines how infants may also be taking to new dad smell. Yaara Endevelt-Shapira is a research scientist with the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences She studies olfaction – how humans process smell.
Endevelt-Shapira previously researched body scent connections between a mother and infant. She wanted to explore if that connection occurs with babies and their dads.
In recent years, fathers are becoming increasingly involved in childcare, but much less is known about their contribution to early development. So new research has been designed and conducted. Each infant took part in three short face-to-face interactions, one with their own father and two with unfamiliar men. The unfamiliar men wore either the father’s preworn shirt or a new, clean, unscented shirt. The order of all these interactions was randomized. And by comparing the different conditions, researchers could examine how father’s body odor influenced internal brain synchrony during social interaction.
Both the babies and the men wore devices on their heads to measure brain activity. Endevelt-Shapira found that brain activity was more in sync when the father was present but also when the father’s body odor was present on a stranger. These findings suggest infants process their father’s scent and that paternal body odor can serve as a sensory cue that supports social interaction even when the father is not physically present.
Read the article in the journal Science Advances