15:30 - 17:00
Fri-P2
Planck Lobby & Meitner Hall
Sampling, identification and sensory evaluation of odors of a newborn baby's head as a putative communication tool with grownups.
Fri-P2-060
Presented by: Mamiko Ozaki
Mamiko Ozaki 1, Tatsuya Uebi 1, Takahiko Hariyama 2, Kazunao Suzuki 2, Naohiro Kanayama 2, Yoshifumi Nagata 3, Yohsuke Ohtsubo 4, Atsushi Kometani 5, Tatsu Kobayakawa 6, Chiyo Senoh 2, Takuma Yoshioka 1
1 Nara Women's University, 2 Hamamatsu Medical University, 3 Iwate University, 4 The University of Tokyo, 5 Kobe University, 6 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
For baby odor analyses, noninvasive, stress-free sample collection is important. Using a simple method, we succeeded in obtaining fresh odors from the head of fve newborn babies. These odors were chemically analyzed by two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC ×GC-MS), and compared with each other or with the odor of amniotic fuid from the baby’s mother. We identifed 31 chemical components of the volatile odors from neonate heads and 21 from amniotic fuid. Although 15 of these components were common to both sources, there was an apparent diference in the GC×GC patterns between the head and amniotic fuid odors, so the neonate head odor might be individually distinct immediately after birth. Therefore, we made artifcial mixtures of the major odor components of the neonate head and maternal amniotic fuid, and used psychological tests to examine whether or not these odors could be distinguished from each other. Our data show that the artifcial odor of a neonate head could be distinguished from that of amniotic fuid, and that the odors of artifcial head odor mixtures could be correctly discriminated for neonates within an hour after birth and at 2 or 3 days of age.