Evidently baby body odor fires up the dopamine pathways in the female brain like hitting the jackpot at the slots, doing cocaine, or eating when you’re hungry. Researchers suggest that Eau de Baby evokes specific brain activity in women—the same brain centers that reward-inducing behavior activates, in order to promote mother-infant bonding.
Not surprising, the dopamine pathways in women who had recently given birth showed increased activity than women who never had. Body odors, the researchers say, may lie at the core of psychobiological processes—those that make us humans emotionally bond to one another for the sake of survival.
Surely this cannot be limited to the mother-infant relationship. Surely, in the economy of Nature, we would all bond to one another through our noses.
Meanwhile, a goal of much of modern chemistry is to eliminate or disguise the natural odors of the human body. What, I wonder, are the unintended consequences of that? Does blocking or disguising our natural body odors lead to inability to emotionally bond with others of our species?
Is that how someone gets so cut off from his own human family, that he could go into a crowded movie theater and in the dark, gun down 12 people he didn’t know?
Mary C Simmons 
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