ABSTRACT Olfaction, often undervalued in social neuroscience, is a fundamental channel for prosocial communication. This review synthesizes evidence from both human and animal studies that the olfactory system—encompassing the main, accessory, and trigeminal pathways—detects conspecific chemosignals to promote and regulate a variety of prosocial behaviours. We outline how social odours underpin critical contexts including mother‐infant bonding, kin recognition, emotional contagion, empathy, and mate selection. The neuroanatomical architecture of olfaction provides a direct interface with the “social brain”: olfactory information flows from the olfactory bulb to limbic hubs like the amygdala and hippocampus for rapid emotional appraisal and social memory, and converges in the orbitofrontal cortex for the integration of sensory cues with affective value and social decision‐making. We argue that olfaction acts not as an auxiliary sense, but as a core integrative system in which chemosensory signalling is essential for forming, maintaining, and navigating social bonds. Elucidating this olfactory‐social brain axis opens translational avenues for understanding neuropsychiatric conditions characterized by social dysfunctions.
Yang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.