Olfactory Cognition at the Start of Life: The Perinatal Shaping of Selective Odor Responsiveness

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511546389.035

26 - Olfactory Cognition at the Start of Life: The Perinatal Shaping of Selective Odor Responsiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2009

Benoist Schaal ,

Robert Soussignan and

Edited by

Rémi Gervais and

Benoist Schaal: Affiliation:
Research Director Centre Européen des Sciences du GoÛt, CNRS, Université de Bourgogne, 15 rue Hugues Picardet, 21000 Dijon, France
Robert Soussignan: Affiliation:
Laboratoire Personnalité et Conduites Adaptatives, CNRS, and CHU Pitié-Sapêtrière, Pavillon Clérambault, 47 boulevard de l'Hôpital, Paris, France
Luc Marlier: Affiliation:
Centre Européen des Sciences du GoÛt, CNRS, Université de Bourgogne, 15 rue Hugues Picardet, 21000 Dijon, France
Catherine Rouby: Affiliation:
Université Lyon I
Benoist Schaal: Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Danièle Dubois: Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Rémi Gervais: Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
A. Holley: Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris

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Summary

In the days following birth, human newborns are swept into a whirlwind of stimuli that are both complex and unpredictable in terms of space, time, and multimodal contingencies. In their very first excursion into the postnatal world, newborns can respond to only a limited array of those stimuli, but their brains possess effective perceptive and integrative capacities that soon will allow them to organize differential perceptions and directional actions in what might otherwise be a “blooming, buzzing confusion.” Our current knowledge of the initial states of perceptual and cognitive functions and their development has been derived almost exclusively from studies of unimodal and cross-modal visual and auditory perceptions (e.g., Gottlieb and Krasnegor, 1985; Lewkowicz and Lickliter, 1994; Kellman and Arterberry, 1998; Slater, 1998; Rochat, 1999). However, evidence that nonvisual, nonaural cues are involved in the partitioning of the neonatal Umwelt has begun to accumulate, both for animals and for humans. Studies have demonstrated, for example, that some newborn animals rely so profoundly and pervasively on olfactory cues that “we cannot appreciate their behavior without understanding the roles of olfaction” (Alberts, 1981, p. 352). Compared with the findings in animal studies, the evidence for olfactory modulation of behavior in our own species remains narrow and shallow, although the body of data is steadily growing. Accordingly, our current knowledge of human cognitive development does not encompass the psychological facets of the chemical senses, a situation that may distort our understanding of the world and mind of the infant (Turkewitz, 1979).

Type: Chapter
Information: Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition , pp. 421 - 440

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511546389.035 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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