Emotional responses to odors in children with high-functioning autism: autonomic arousal, facial behavior and self-report.

Although emotional functioning is impaired in children with autism, it is unclear if this impairment is due to difficulties with facial expression, autonomic responsiveness, or the verbal description of emotional states. To shed light on this issue, we examined responses to pleasant and unpleasant odors in eight children (8-14 years) with high-functioning autism and 8 age-matched typically developing controls. Despite subtle differences in the facial actions of the children with autism, children in both groups had similar facial and autonomic emotional responses to the odors.

Exploring the olfactory environment of premature newborns: a French survey of health care and cleaning products used in neonatal units.

Aim: To assess the main determinants of the newborn's nosocomial olfactory environment.

Methods: An electronic questionnaire was sent to 99 neonatal units in France. Senior nurses and/or physicians described the nature and use of skin care products (e.

Long-lasting memory for an odor acquired at the mother's breast.

Whether neonatal odor memory can persist into toddlerhood and influence behaviors that tap processes related to cognition (attention and exploration), motivation (choice and consumption), and emotion (hedonic processing) remains under-researched. Using a quasi-experimental longitudinal design, we examined whether an odor experienced at the mother's breast can be retained at 7 and 21 months. The prescribed prophylactic use of a camomile-scented balm defined two groups: infants exposed (CaE) or never exposed (CaNE) to camomile odor.

Learning at the breast: preference formation for an artificial scent and its attraction against the odor of maternal milk.

Human newborns are known to display spontaneous attraction to the odor of human milk. This study aimed to assess whether the positive response to human milk odor can be explained by nursing-related learning, and whether it can be easily reassigned to a novel odor associated with nursing. Infants were exposed or not to a novel odor (camomile, Ca) during nursing, and tested on day 3-4 for their preference for camomile in comparison with either a scentless control (Exp.

Human newborns prefer human milk: conspecific milk odor is attractive without postnatal exposure.

Behavioral responses of 3- to 4-day-old newborns to the odors of various human milk (HM) and formula milk (FM) were examined in paired-choice tests. When both stimuli were nonfamiliar, breast-fed, as well as bottle-fed, infants oriented their head and mouthed more vigorously to HM than to FM. When breast-fed infants were exposed to nonfamiliar HM along with the familiar FM, their head-turning responses were undifferentiated although they mouthed more frequently to the human stimulus.

Olfactory stimulation prevents apnea in premature newborns.

Objective: Methylxanthines and doxapram are currently used to treat apnea of prematurity but are not fully effective and often present undesirable side effects. The present study examines whether exposure to an odor known to modulate the infant's respiratory rate could reduce the frequency of apneic spells.

Method: Fourteen preterm newborns born at 24 to 28 gestational weeks presenting recurrent apnea despite caffeine and doxapram therapy were exposed to a pleasant odor diffused during 24 hours in the incubator.