First week of life is crucial for sense of smell and touch
Published: Tuesday, Jun 11th 2024, 10:00
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The first week after birth is crucial for the development of the sense of smell and touch. As researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) showed in a study on newborn mice, the brain reacts specifically to smells and touch during this time window.
In the brains of newborn mice, odor stimuli triggered activity in a large part of the cerebral cortex, including in areas that process touch, as the UZH wrote in a press release on Tuesday.
Experiments have shown that mice that were not exposed to scents in the first week of life also had a poorer sense of touch later in life.
The researchers also observed this interaction between the two senses in the brain anatomy, as they showed in their study published in the journal "Science". In the first week of life, the researchers discovered a series of nerve connections between the areas of the brain that process the sense of smell and the sense of touch. These connections disappeared again within a few weeks.
Important for human babies
Although the experiments were carried out on mice, previous results indicate that similar processes also take place in the human brain, according to the university.
This knowledge is particularly important for premature babies who are placed in intensive care, where they are deprived of a normal sensory environment, explained study leader Theofanis Karayannis. This could possibly leave long-term traces. Therapy with suitable odor stimuli could provide a remedy, according to the researcher.
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