Social odor as a source of learning in human infants

Antonia Düfeld; Robin Nehler; Emma Peplies; Sarah Jessen

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010

Social odor as a source of learning in human infants

Antonia Düfeld, Robin Nehler, Emma Peplies, Sarah Jessen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Medical Psychology

Abstract

Maternal odor has recently emerged as an important but ill-understood factor in sociocognitive learning in early human development. We propose that social odor plays its unique role in the first year of life through dissociable affective and perceptual mechanisms. These mechanisms yield distinct predictions for future studies of social odor.

Original language	English
Journal	Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Volume	29
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	502-504
Number of pages	3
ISSN	1364-6613
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010
Publication status	Published - 06.2025

Research Areas and Centers

Academic Focus: Center for Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM)

DFG Research Classification Scheme

1.22-02 Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neurosciences
1.22-03 Developmental and Educational Psychology
1.22-05 Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010

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title = "Social odor as a source of learning in human infants",

abstract = "Maternal odor has recently emerged as an important but ill-understood factor in sociocognitive learning in early human development. We propose that social odor plays its unique role in the first year of life through dissociable affective and perceptual mechanisms. These mechanisms yield distinct predictions for future studies of social odor.",

author = "Antonia D{\"u}feld and Robin Nehler and Emma Peplies and Sarah Jessen",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors",

year = "2025",

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AU - Nehler, Robin

AU - Peplies, Emma

AU - Jessen, Sarah

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N2 - Maternal odor has recently emerged as an important but ill-understood factor in sociocognitive learning in early human development. We propose that social odor plays its unique role in the first year of life through dissociable affective and perceptual mechanisms. These mechanisms yield distinct predictions for future studies of social odor.

AB - Maternal odor has recently emerged as an important but ill-understood factor in sociocognitive learning in early human development. We propose that social odor plays its unique role in the first year of life through dissociable affective and perceptual mechanisms. These mechanisms yield distinct predictions for future studies of social odor.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105005453614

U2 - 10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010

DO - 10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010

M3 - Short survey

C2 - 40379506

AN - SCOPUS:105005453614

SN - 1364-6613

VL - 29

SP - 502

EP - 504

JO - Trends in Cognitive Sciences

JF - Trends in Cognitive Sciences

IS - 6

ER -

Social odor as a source of learning in human infants

Abstract

Research Areas and Centers

DFG Research Classification Scheme

UN SDGs

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