Moms really do have a nose for that baby smell
LIFE 5D
USA TODAY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 HEALTH & BEHAVIOR
Moms really do have a nose for that baby smell Study sniffs out evidence from women’s brain scans Kim Painter
@KimPainter Special for USA TODAY
New-car smell is good. New-baby smell? Maybe even better, at least if you are a new mom. A small study shows eau de newborn lights up pleasure centers in the brains of women who have recently given birth. Researchers already knew that mothers and babies react to one another’s scents. What this study adds is brain scan evidence that moms get an immediate neurological reward every time they sniff that delicious newborn head or tummy — or, in this case, the used T-shirts of babies they don’t even know. One researcher involved in the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, likened the response to that of an addict getting a
fix or a hungry person getting a meal. “What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns … activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers. These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug,” says Johannes Frasnelli, a psychology researcher at the University of Montreal, in a statement. “It is, in fact, the sating of desire.” For the study, conducted in Germany, the researchers compared 15 new mothers with 15 young women who had never given birth. All underwent brain scans while inhaling the body odors of infants they did not know. Women who were not mothers
CHRIS CLARK, THE GRAND RAPIDS (MICH.) PRESS, VIA AP
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USA TODAY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 HEALTH & BEHAVIOR
Moms really do have a nose for that baby smell Study sniffs out evidence from women’s brain scans Kim Painter
@KimPainter Special for USA TODAY
New-car smell is good. New-baby smell? Maybe even better, at least if you are a new mom. A small study shows eau de newborn lights up pleasure centers in the brains of women who have recently given birth. Researchers already knew that mothers and babies react to one another’s scents. What this study adds is brain scan evidence that moms get an immediate neurological reward every time they sniff that delicious newborn head or tummy — or, in this case, the used T-shirts of babies they don’t even know. One researcher involved in the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, likened the response to that of an addict getting a
fix or a hungry person getting a meal. “What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns … activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers. These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug,” says Johannes Frasnelli, a psychology researcher at the University of Montreal, in a statement. “It is, in fact, the sating of desire.” For the study, conducted in Germany, the researchers compared 15 new mothers with 15 young women who had never given birth. All underwent brain scans while inhaling the body odors of infants they did not know. Women who were not mothers
CHRIS CLARK, THE GRAND RAPIDS (MICH.) PRESS, VIA AP
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^E6b*4 `_F*40
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