MODEL FOR SENSITIVE PERIODS IN EARLY FLAVOR LEARNING

描述（改编自申请人摘要） 早期对味道的体验，特别是味道和 鼻后感知的气味，影响后来的口味偏好， 人类的食物选择仍然是一个谜。调查人员提出了一个 一系列的研究来调查这一重要问题， 模型系统是一类水解蛋白质的婴儿配方食品， 基于，因此具有非常明显和独特的味道， 对较大的婴儿、儿童和成人来说是不好吃的。最近的研究 研究人员的实验室提供了第一个实验演示， 4个月以下的婴儿愿意接受大量的 量，并在喂食时吃饱，一种新的蛋白质水解产物 公式此外，它是众所周知的，虽然没有直接的 实验证明，如果这些公式被引入到 婴儿在生命的最初几个月内，并继续喂养， 它们至少在一岁或更大之前保持高度可接受。 这意味着一个敏感时期，在此期间， 成人和4岁以上的婴儿不喜欢的配方奶粉 月龄无暴露，使其可接受， 美味可口。本项目的目标是调查 暴露于蛋白水解物配方所需的时间， 它可以接受在以后的年龄（目标1）;以确定是否经验 水解物配方对风味和食物偏好的影响 在儿童早期和晚期（目标2）;调查是否 在基于牛奶的配方中使用特定风味的经验将 提高了对类似风味的蛋白质水解产物的接受度 未接触过水解产物的婴儿配方奶粉 (Aim 3）;并调查负责的化学感觉属性 对水解蛋白质的接受程度与年龄有关的差异- 包含公式（目标4）。这些实验将提供新的 关于这种戏剧性的发展变化的信息， 人类婴儿的反应，更一般地说，将提供第一个 持续调查早期风味体验对 人类婴儿和儿童的后期接受和食物偏好， 因此，将提供基本的洞察力，这一重要的，但根据- 调查，研究领域。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract) The extent to which early experience with flavors, especially taste and odors perceived retronasally, influence later flavor preferences and food choice in humans remains a mystery. The investigators propose a series of studies to investigate this important issue by using as a model system a class of infant formulas that are hydrolyzed protein based, and thus have very pronounced and distinctive flavors which are unpalatable to older infants, children and adults. Recent studies in the investigators' laboratory provided the first experimental demonstration that infants younger than 4 months of age willingly accept substantial amounts of, and satiate while feeding, a novel, protein hydrolysate formula. Moreover, it is well-known, although there are no direct experiments demonstrating it, that if these formulas are introduced to infants within the first few months of life and are continued to be fed, they remain highly acceptable at least until one year of age or older. This implicates a sensitive period during which exposure to the formulas, which are unpalatable to adults and infants older than 4 months of age without exposure, renders them acceptable and presumably palatable. It is the goal of this project to investigate the amount and timing of exposure to a protein hydrolysate formula necessary to render it acceptable at a later age (Aim 1); to determine whether experience with hydrolysate formulas impacts upon flavor and food preferences during early and late childhood (Aim 2); to investigate whether experience with a particular flavor in a milk-based formula would heighten the acceptance of a similarly flavored protein hydrolysate formula in infants who have not been previously exposed to hydrolysates (Aim 3); and to investigate the chemosensory attributes responsible for the age-related difference in the acceptance of protein hydrolysate- containing formulas (Aim 4). These experiments will provide new information on this dramatic developmental change in the sensory-guided responses of human infants, and more generally, will provide the first sustained investigation on the impact of early flavor experience on later acceptance and food preferences in human infants and children and will thus provide fundamental insight into this important, yet under- investigated, research area.