A POSSIBLE PROTOCOGNITIVE ROLE FOR ODOR IN HUMAN INFANT DEVELOPMENT

Concepts relating to semiochemistry are now prevalent in the current l iterature on olfaction. Two fundamental tools of semiotics are metapho rs, involving cognitive and verbal processes, and metonyms, involving nonverbal associations. By extending the concept of metonymy to non-li nguistic transmission, we propose a possible explanation of how olfact ion acts as a semiotic sense. Consideration of the sense of smell in a nimals and humans demonstrates its excellence for the formation of lea rned associations. In animals we find salient and complex information transmitted via biological odors. In this review, the olfactory dyadic relationship between mother and child is used for the theoretical pro posal that the sense of smell plays an important protocognitive role i n the genesis of cognition via mechanisms of in utero and postnatal no nlinguistic metonymic learning processes. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc .