This project pertains to the interdisciplinary field of interdisciplinary research on the practices of breast-feeding. It has 2 complementary parts, one anthropological, the other biological and psychobiological. - The anthropological part aims to document the practices and representations related to neonatal C consumption - much less understood than those related to breastfeeding - in 7 different countries (Germany, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, France, Morocco), characterized by contrasting social and cultural contexts. The research includes 4 phases (P1-P4). P1/ (6 months): building and translation of 2 questionnaires into local language (for the mothers, and nursing staff) to be used in the 10 maternity hospitals selected in the 7 countries. In addition, an interview grid will be built up on the consumption of C for use by different fields covered by this research (in Arabic, Berber, English, German, Khmer, Mooré, Portuguese, Spanish). P2/ (18 months): The investigation itself, which will be conducted following 2 modalities by means of the documents which will have been elaborated during P1: a/ (2 months) Questionnaires will be passed in the maternity wards of Augsburg (Germany), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Fes (Morocco), Nice (France), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Pelotas (Brazil), and Phnom Penh (Cambodia) ; b/ (4 months) Ethnographic inquiries (observation and interviews). Access to informants will be through the mothers who have been subjected to the questionnaire and to whom we have asked for their consent. P3 (6 months): data processing and analysis of the results. P4 (6 months) Writing up and communication results. - The biological and psychobiological part of the project focuses on two aspects of the C. 1/ its sensory and functional properties (for adults, parents or not, and for newborns), which are largely unknown to date. This part will be run by the Ethology team of CSGA, Dijon (UMR 6265). 2/ to test the immunological potential of C and its effect in the field of respiratory and gut allergies, a series of experiments will be conducted on an animal model. This task will be carried out by the E.A. Immune Tolerance, Hospital L’Archet, Nice. Overall, the specificity of the project consists in: i)being completely dedicated to the very initial phase of human feeding: the ingestion of C ; ii)investigating cultural variables susceptible to explain consumption or not of C in the target countries; iii)raising anthropological and bio-cultural knowledge on the perception of an organic substance such as the C; iv)looking for the biological benefits of C for the prevention of allergic diseases; v)elaborating recommendations that could be useful for public health policies and educational initiatives in the target countries. Notably, expected results could increase the frequency of consumption of neonatal C, the positive effects of which are widely known for the health of the child.

While the ability to form and recall memories is essential for survival, it is also key to forming relationships with others and defines our sense of self. The hippocampus has long been recognized as a fundamental structure for learning and memory formation. Many lesion studies of human patients over the course of the last 50 years have revealed that the hippocampus is required for the formation of long term episodic memories. The focus of this project is on social memory, a hippocampal-dependent process of fundamental importance. The inability to properly recognize family and acquaintances is frequently an early symptom of several psychiatric disorders and neurological diseases, and a strong predictor of patient outcome. Hippocampal area CA2 has recently been found to be essential for social memory formation. Interestingly, this area also shows marked vulnerability in numerous psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. The goal of this proposal is to understand the brain circuitry and network mechanisms underlying social memory formation. Social recognition memory is the ability to differentiate between an unknown and familiar conspecific. In humans and rodents, normal hippocampal function is required for social recognition memory. The inability to recall social interactions is one of the more prominent characteristics of patients with hippocampal lesions. Much has been learned about spatial encoding by ensembles of cells and network activity of the hippocampus, and interestingly there is compelling evidence in human studies indicating that social relations are mapped within the hippocampus. However, how social information is processed and encoded by the hippocampus is not understood. The first aim of this project is to determine what differentiates social information from contextual information in the hippocampal circuit. Recent findings have revealed a surprising role played by chemosignals in human social cognition, a process that is disrupted in autism spectrum disorder. In rodents, olfaction plays a crucial role in social recognition memory, as ablation of the olfactory bulbs or vomeronasal organ prevents social recognition memory. We hypothesize area CA2 is particularly tuned to be sensitive to chemosignals associated with social context, as it receives several inputs from brain regions that are strongly activated by olfactory system and hormonal signals. Thus, in this aim, we will examine the neural circuits activated by social olfactory input and determine how they influence hippocampal area CA2. The second aim of this project is to examine if area CA2 acts on the hippocampal and septal network to enable encoding of social memories. There is abundant recent evidence that area CA2 neurons project and act very widely on the hippocampal and septal network. With this, it has recently been shown that ensembles of cells in ventral CA1 are active during social learning, and selective re-activation of this sparse population is able to alter performance in a social memory task. We hypothesize that dorsal CA2 pyramidal neurons are acting on ventral CA1 pyramidal neurons and the septum during social episodes, allowing the encoding of social information. Thus, in this aim, we will examine how dorsal CA2 activity acts on ventral CA1 pyramidal neurons and the medial septum. Hippocampal area CA2 has gone virtually un-studied for the last seventy years. In this project three teams with very complementary sets of expertise will apply several cutting-edge techniques including optogenetics, behavioral testing, neuronal circuitry mapping and in vivo recording to better understand social memory formation. Our results will provide a link and mechanism to understanding how social information is processed and provides the foundation for finding new diagnosis and treatments for psychiatric disease.

This project is fundamental and highly multidisciplinary. It gathers academic experts in computational modeling, protein engineering, behavioral neuroscience, and a company expert in sensory analysis. Their research hypothesis is that numerical models can crack the code of chemosensory sensations. The project aims at predicting or synthesizing chemicals targeting given smells, tastes, or modulating our mood or emotions. They will use ligand-based and receptor-based numerical models to tentatively decode i/ how our brain uses receptors to perceive its chemical environment, and ii/ how chemical senses are encoded within odorants and tastants chemical properties. These properties can either belong to the perceptive field (smell and taste) but also to the hedonic field (like or dislike), itself wired to our mood or emotions. Here, in silico models will process data coming from different level, ranging from cellular to sensory levels.

Growing evidence demonstrates that emotional communication takes place between humans and domestic animals, but most studies have focused on the visual and acoustic channels, neglecting olfactory communication, the most primitive and widespread channel. Recent studies of our teams show that equids and bovidae can perceive human olfactory signals associated with different emotional states, and these chemical cues have begun to be characterized. These first results lead us to investigate further the chemical communication of emotions from humans to animals but also from animals to humans. We propose a project on two domestic livestock species, equids (Equus caballus) and bovidae (Ovis aries), with three aims: (1) To determine whether these species discriminate between different human emotional odours and whether these odours induce emotions in animals; (2) To investigate reciprocity, namely are humans able to discriminate animal emotional odours and how do they react emotionally to these odors? (3) To analyze the chemical composition of emotional odours produced by humans, horses and sheep to confirm whether chemical differences exist between odours from different emotional states in a species, and determine whether the three species share chemical signatures linked to emotional states. Regarding methods, collection of human emotional odours will be based on well-established and published protocols. The participants will watch emotion-charged film extracts (displaying fear, joy, sadness or inspiring disgust) while equipped with under-arm gauze pads. Animal emotional odours will be collected following the same principle. Horses and sheep will experience situations of contrasting emotional valence (positive, such as pleasant touch contact, and more negative, such as a novel environment), while equipped with gauze pads placed under abdominal belts. These odours will then be tested on receiver subjects in appropriate tests for each species. Thus, horses and sheep will participate in ‘habituation/ discrimination’ tests which will enable us to demonstrate whether they can discriminate different human emotional odours. They will then undergo a battery of tests to evaluate their emotional reactivity (e.g., a neophobia test) according to whether they are exposed or not to human emotional odours. The human subjects will take part in specific tests to determine whether or not they can evaluate implicitly or explicitly the animal odours (e.g., standardized laboratory tests in which they will self-evaluate their emotional state before and after smelling an odour). The consortium is well-experienced in the battery of tests the animal and human participants will perform. Finally, to describe the chemical composition of the emotional signals in human and animal sweat, the organic volatile compound extracts will be analyzsed through gas chromatography -mass spectrometry. This inter disciplinary project will group fields such as cognitive ethology, human psychology and chemical ecology. It should improve understanding of how animals and humans mutually communicate their emotions through chemicals. Four different scientific teams will collaborate on the project, which will be supported by scientists recognized in the domains of animal cognition, emotions and welfare, the human-animal relationship, olfactory processing in animals and humans, and chemical ecology.