The impact of body odor on bonding and incest avoidance over the course of life: a developmental and neuropsychological approach

该研究项目的目的是全面了解人一生中体味对婚姻关系和防止乱伦的影响。众所周知，人类的亲子关系和亲属识别是由嗅觉刺激调节的，我们假设这种调节随儿童年龄的变化而变化。在婴儿中，这种调节被认为是促进联系，在青春期，它阻止了孩子对父母的性吸引力。儿童体味由几种化合物组成，可分为高度可变的、稳定的和发展中的。稳定的、遗传的化合物与人类白细胞抗原（HLA）有关，发育的化合物与儿童的激素变化有关。我们假设hla相关的化合物启动亲属识别和增强自己的婴儿体味的奖励处理。然而，嗅觉遗传相似性可能与性激素相关的发育化合物相互作用，导致自己的青春期儿童产生不愉快的体臭感知。该项目包括四项研究，分别阐明：1)基因和激素化合物对体臭感知的影响；2)父母对婴儿和青春期儿童体臭反应的奖励处理；3)嗅觉对母子关系的影响。这些研究是在健康的参与者中进行的；对病人的研究补充了该项目。方法包括问卷调查、心理体格检查和父母侧功能磁共振断层扫描。此外，评估儿童的激素状态，并对父母和儿童进行HLA测序。体臭分析是为了客观地描述体臭在发育过程中的变化。我们期望这个项目对家庭相互作用的发展动态有新的认识。该研究结果将通过包括嗅觉通道来扩展目前对结合的了解，嗅觉通道形成情感背景，并作为不同模式信号的调制器。心理感觉研究与结合研究相结合是一种新的跨学科研究方法。将遗传变量（HLA）纳入体臭评估是一种新颖的方法，并且与激素变化的相互作用使该项目具有挑战性和独特性。因此，该项目可以为预防由早产或产后抑郁症引起的结合障碍增加新的策略。

The aim of the research project is to create a comprehensive picture of the impact of body odors to bonding and incest prevention over the course of life. It is known that human parent-child bonding and kin recognition are modulated by olfactory stimuli and we hypothesize that this modulation varies as a function of the age of the child. In infants this modulation is assumed foster bonding, in puberty it prevents the child from sexual attraction of their parents. Childrens body odors consist of several compounds that can be divided into highly variable, stable and developmental ones. Stable, genetic compounds are related to human leukocyte antigens (HLA) and developmental ones are related to hormonal changes of the children. We assume that HLA-related compounds initiate kin recognition and enhance reward processing of own infants body odor. However, olfactory genetic similarity may interact with of developmental compounds related to sexual hormones and lead to an unpleasant body odor perception of own pubescent children. The project consists of four studies, which clarify 1) the impact of genetic and hormonal compounds on body odor perception 2) parental reward processing in response to the body odor of infants vs pubescent children and ) the impact of the sense of smell on mother-child bonding. The studies are carried out in healthy participants; a study in patients complements the project. Methods include questionnaires, psychophysical examination and functional magnetic resonance tomography on the parents side. Furthermore hormonal state of the children is assessed and parents and children undergo HLA sequencing. Body odor analysis is planned in order objectify developmental related changes of body odors. We expect that this project sheds new light on the developmental dynamics of family interactions. The results will extend the current knowledge on bonding by including the olfactory channel, which forms an emotional background and serves as a modulator for signals from different modalities. The combination of psychosensory studies with bonding is a new interdisciplinary approach. Inclusion of genetic variables (HLA) on body odor assessment is a novel method and the interaction with hormonal changes makes the project challenging and unique. In result, the project can add new strategies for the prevention of bonding-disorders, caused by preterm birth or postnatal depression for instance.