Does Any Mother’s Body Odor Stimulate Interest in Mother’s Face in 4‐Month‐Old Infants?

Little is known about the effects of olfaction on visual processing during infancy. We investigated whether and how an infant\u27s own mother\u27s body odor or another mother\u27s body odor affects 4‐month‐old infants’ looking at their mother\u27s face when it is paired with a stranger\u27s face. In Experiment 1, infants were exposed to their mother\u27s body odor or to a control odor, while in Experiment 2, infants were exposed to a stranger mother\u27s body odor while their visual preferences were recorded. Results revealed that infants looked more at the stranger\u27s female face in presence of the control odor but that they looked more at their mother\u27s face in the context of any mother\u27s body odors. This effect was due to a reduction of looking at the stranger\u27s face. These findings suggest that infants react similarly to the body odor of any mother and add to the growing body of evidence indicating that olfactory stimulation represents a pervasive aspect of infant multisensory perception