Unexplained repeated pregnancy loss is associated with altered perceptual and brain responses to men's body-odor.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian olfaction and reproduction are tightly linked, a link less explored in humans. Here, we asked whether human unexplained repeated pregnancy loss (uRPL) is associated with altered olfaction, and particularly altered olfactory responses to body-odor. We found that whereas most women with uRPL could identify the body-odor of their spouse, most control women could not. Moreover, women with uRPL rated the perceptual attributes of men's body-odor differently from controls. These pronounced differences were accompanied by an only modest albeit significant advantage in ordinary, non-body-odor-related olfaction in uRPL. Next, using structural and functional brain imaging, we found that in comparison to controls, most women with uRPL had smaller olfactory bulbs, yet increased hypothalamic r

SUBMITTER: Rozenkrantz L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7524551 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature