Chemical communication and mother-infant recognition

Vaglio, S.

doi:10.4161/cib.2.3.8227

Chemical communication and mother-infant recognition

Vaglio, S.

Authors

S. Vaglio

Abstract

Fifty years after the term “pheromone” was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüsher the search for these semiochemicals is still an elusive goal of chemical ecology and communication studies. Contrary to what appears in the popular press, the race is still on to capture and define human scents. Over the last several years, it became increasingly clear that pheromone-like chemical signals probably play a role in offspring identification and mother recognition. Recently, we analyzed the volatile compounds in sweat patch samples collected from the para-axillary and nipple-areola regions of women during pregnancy and after childbirth. We hypothesized that, at the time of birth and during the first weeks of life, the distinctive olfactory pattern of the para-axillary area is probably useful to newborns for recognizing and distinguishing their own mother, whereas the characteristic pattern of the nippleareola region is probably useful as a guide to nourishment.

Citation

Vaglio, S. (2009). Chemical communication and mother-infant recognition. Communicative and Integrative Biology, 2(3), 279-281. https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.2.3.8227

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jun 15, 2009
Deposit Date	Oct 2, 2013
Publicly Available Date	Apr 16, 2014
Journal	Communicative and Integrative Biology
Print ISSN	1942-0889
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	2
Issue	3
Pages	279-281
DOI	https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.2.3.8227
Keywords	Offspring identification, Mother recognition, Putative human pheromones, Volatile compounds, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), Solid phase micro-extraction (SPME).