The Power of Scent: How Babies Use Their Mothers’ Odor for Facial Recognition

By Stephanie Feuer

A new study published in Child Development reveals that babies use their mother's scent to help them identify faces.  This research, led by Dr. Arnaud Leleu, Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience and Head of the Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition (DOCC) Lab at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, France, demonstrates that visual perception in developing infants relies on odor cues until the visual system becomes effective on its own.

The study involved 50 infants aged 4 to 12 months and employed EEG measurements to assess face-selective responses. Researchers discovered adding the mother's body odor significantly enhanced facial recognition ability in younger infants. As the infants grew older and became more proficient at visual face perception, the impact of scent diminished.

In an interview with the Society for Research in Child Development, Dr. Leleu shared his motivation for this research.

"Research on multisensory perception is mainly focused on audition and vision, the 'dominant' senses in humans compared to olfaction, which has long been held as poorly functional in our species. However, accumulating evidence indicates that the sense of smell is particularly functional in human infants, whereas other senses such as vision are largely immature."

 Not only do these findings challenge long-held assumptions about the role of olfaction in human development, they underscore the value of multisensory exposure in early learning. Dr. Leleu says,

"For instance, infants would learn better what an apple is by seeing its shape and color, hearing the sound it makes when taking a bite of it, smelling its odor, touching its shape and texture."

 The implications of this study extend beyond facial recognition. Understanding how olfactory cues impact visual perception in infants could inform early childhood education, parenting practices and therapies for developmental challenges.

 This study suggest that incorporating familiar scents into learning environments could improve attention and recognition skills in young children. This research could also pave the way for developing interventions for infants facing sensory processing disorders, emphasizing the significance of olfactory stimulation in their development.

 Dr. Leleu says,

"Given that our findings highlight the importance of the sense of smell in this early concert of the senses, every sensory modality should be considered when stimulating young infants, not only hearing and vision."