In our research project, we investigated how 7-month-old babies respond to happy and fearful faces\u2014and whether the scent of their own father plays a role. For this purpose, we analyzed the babies\u2019 brain activity (so-called EEG measurements).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We wanted to find out to what extent the paternal scent elicits a reaction to frightened faces similar to that already demonstrated for maternal scent. Earlier studies had already shown that maternal scent has a kind of \u201ccalming effect\u201d on 7-month-old babies when they look at frightened faces (discernible as an altered brain response). This effect was not observable when the babies smelled another, unfamiliar woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For paternal scent, a somewhat different, more complex picture emerged<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were able to observe that it matters whether the babies saw female or male faces. In this context, it appears above all that paternal scent has an effect on male faces\u2014namely, that the babies respond particularly strongly to the fearful emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our results show: the scent of the father can\u2014in a manner similar to that of the mother\u2014influence the emotional processing of faces in babies and play an important role in how babies process emotional information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Especially for male faces, it appears that paternal scent can direct the baby\u2019s attention to fearful facial expressions. This suggests that the scent of another parent can guide babies\u2019 attention to specific stimuli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, it can be said that paternal scent influences early socio-emotional processing in infancy. Whether this effect is related to familiarity, for example due to differences in caregiving time, is currently still unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are interested, you can find the journal article at this link:<\/p>\n\n\n\n