Mother-child bonding is associated with the maternal perception of the child's body odor
Mother-child bonding is associated with the maternal perception of the child's body odor
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DOI：
10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.09.014
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Junge-Hoffmeister, Juliane
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Croy, Ilona;Mohr, Theresa;Junge-Hoffmeister, Juliane
母亲可以识别婴儿的气味，并且通常喜欢这种气味。与这一观察结果一致，婴儿的身体气味激活了母亲大脑中与奖励相关的区域。然而，在一些母子二人组中，相互的纽带受损，母亲难以与孩子互动。我们的目的是调查有亲子关系障碍的母亲如何感知孩子的体味，总共调查了75位0-12个月婴儿的母亲：其中25位被招募到专门治疗母子关系障碍的心身日间病房。50名年龄匹配的健康妇女和她们的婴儿作为对照。每个婴儿的体味样本都是以高度标准化的程序从紧身衣上收集的。此后，每位母亲对自己和另外两名婴儿的样本进行盲法和随机设计。此外，一般嗅觉功能的阈值和识别能力进行了测试，母亲报告的债券，她的婴儿在一个标准化的问卷。健康的母亲表现出明显的偏好自己相比，其他婴儿的气味，而母亲的债券困难没有。此外，偏好程度呈负相关，自我报告的粘合困难。母亲与债券困难不能识别自己的婴儿的气味以上的机会，而控制母亲可以。两组在一般嗅觉功能上没有差异，我们假设，与结合困难相关的近距离身体接触和互动时间的减少可能会导致暴露减少，并阻碍对婴儿体臭的识别。在一个恶性循环中，降低了闻自己婴儿的快感可能会阻止女性故意接近婴儿。因此，身体和感官互动的积极和建立联系的结果无法展开。由于婴儿的气味通常被认为是非常愉快和有益的，婴儿体臭的有意识感知可能是一种附加的治疗方法，为母亲与粘合困难。
Mothers can recognize the odor of their baby and typically adore this odor. In line with this observation, infant body odors activate reward-related brain areas in the mothers. In some mother-child-dyads however, the mutual bond is impaired and mothers have trouble engaging in interaction with their child. We aimed to examine how mothers with bonding difficulties perceive their child's body odor.In total, 75 mothers of babies aged 0-12 months were examined: Twenty-five of those were recruited in a psychosomatic day hospital ward, which is specialized for mother-child bonding disorders. Fifty age-matched healthy women and their babies served as controls. Body odor samples of each baby were collected from bodysuits in a highly standardized procedure. Thereafter, each mother rated the samples of her own and two other infants in a blind and randomized design. In addition, general olfactory function in terms of threshold and identification ability was tested and the mother reported the bonding to her baby in a standardized questionnaire.Healthy mothers showed a clear preference of their own compared to odors of other infant's, while mothers with bonding difficulties did not. Furthermore, the degree of preference was negatively correlated to self-reported bonding difficulties. Mothers with bonding difficulties could not identify their own infant's odor above chance, while control mothers could. Both groups did not differ in general olfactory function.We assume that reduced close body contact and interaction time associated with bonding difficulties may lead to reduced exposure and hinder the recognition of the infantile body odor. Within a vicious cycle, a reduced hedonic experience smelling their own baby may prevent women from deliberately approaching the baby. Thus, the positive and bond-building consequences of bodily and sensory interaction cannot unfold. As the baby's odor is normally perceived as very pleasant and rewarding, the conscious perception of the infantile body odor may be an additive therapeutic approach for mothers with bonding difficulties.