title: Olfaction in the development of social preferences in the human neonate.
abstract: Olfactory perception in the human neonate has been largely ignored. The present experiments examine the possibility that neonates can use smell to locate a food source and that they can differentiate between their own mother and another mother on the basis of smell. Head-turning to breast pads was used in perference tests. Although the neonate did not appear to be able to use smell to localize a food source, significantly more babies spent more time turning towards their own mother's breast pad than towards a clean breast pad at five days of age. By six days of age babies were showing a differential response between their own mother's breast pad and another mother's breast pad, although this differentiation was not present at two days of age.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002657:Child Development; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009068:Movement; D012903:Smell