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The flavor of life: perinatal development of odor and taste preferences
1Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. robyn@imp.med.uni-muenchen.de
Insights
Early olfactory learning, even prenatally, influences later food preferences and sensory sensitivity. This developmental process in rabbits suggests potential parallels in human infants, impacting food choices and sensory perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Sensory Science
Background:
- Chemosensation is crucial for ingestive behavior, yet its developmental trajectory remains poorly understood.
- Olfactory, trigeminal, and gustatory systems are functional prenatally, with newborns exhibiting responses to odors and basic tastes.
- Early sensory experiences shape later behaviors and physiological responses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the early development of chemosensory systems and their role in ingestive behavior.
- To determine if prenatal olfactory learning influences postnatal food preferences and sensory sensitivity.
- To explore potential cross-cultural differences in food odor perception in humans.
Main Methods:
- Studies in rabbits to assess prenatal olfactory learning and its effects on diet choice.
- Analysis of infant responses to various odors and tastes.
- Cross-cultural surveys on the pleasantness of food odors based on familiarity.
Main Results:
- Rabbits demonstrate prenatal learning of maternal diet-associated odors, impacting long-term food choices.
- This early learning can enhance stimulus-specific sensitivity of the sensory apparatus.
- Human nationality influences food odor pleasantness judgments based on cultural familiarity.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal and early olfactory experiences significantly shape ingestive behavior and sensory development.
- Culture-specific food experiences may influence adult preferences for food-associated odors.
- Further cross-cultural research is needed to confirm these developmental influences in humans.
Abstract:
Despite the importance of chemosensation in the regulation of ingestive behavior, we still know surprisingly little about the development of the olfactory, trigeminal and gustatory systems. All three, however, are functional to some degree prenatally, and by birth infants are able to respond to a wide range of odors and can clearly distinguish between the tastes of sweet, sour and bitter. Based on findings from our work in the rabbit, we report that learning of odors associated with the mother's diet can occur very early in development, even prenatally, that it can have a long-term influence on later food choice, and may even lead to enhanced, stimulus-specific sensitivity of the basic sensory apparatus. Whether comparable phenomena exist in human infants is not known, although our recent findings that nationalities differ in judgements of the pleasantness of food odors depending on whether these are recognized as representing familiar, culture-typical foods, suggests that it might. A cross-cultural study is currently in progress examining the influence of culture-specific childhood eating experiences on adult preferences for food-associated odors.