Model For Sensitive Periods in Early Flavor Learning

描述(申请人提供)：早期营养可能对行为有深远的影响：新的研究表明，在出生后发育期间存在敏感期，在这一时期，发育中的大脑对环境影响，包括食物的味道，具有高度的敏感性。虽然儿童与生俱来的口味好恶对健康饮食造成了障碍，但对人类和其他动物的研究表明，早期的经历会影响这些好恶。挑战在于确定是否存在经验促进人们更喜欢健康食品味道的最佳时机。我们之前的实验表明，就像其他哺乳动物一样，哺乳母亲在哺乳期的头几个月吃什么会影响她孩子的食物偏好。我们建议在16个月的时间内对妇女和她们的婴儿进行一项详细的随机研究，改变接触三种蔬菜口味(胡萝卜、甜菜和卷心菜)的时间和持续时间，以确定对儿童接受这些口味的影响，他们母亲对这些食物的喜好，以及母亲在断奶后给孩子喂这些食物的可能性。在对人类和其他动物的扎实研究的基础上，这项研究的总体目标是明确婴儿通过母乳中的味道变化学习味道的敏感期的时间(特定目标1)和后果(特定目标2)，并确定生殖状态(特定目标3)和遗传变异(特定目标4)对新近分娩的母亲及其子女喜欢蔬菜的影响。这项研究背后的假设考察了围绕如何将蔬菜引入儿童饮食的高度普遍和调查不足的行为现象，重点关注早期生活，而不像其他许多试图改变年龄较大儿童的饮食习惯的研究，并关注母婴二元体，因为母亲在敏感期的食物消费和喂养选择可能会对儿童以后的食物暴露和选择产生深远的影响。了解母亲应该在什么时候进食以形成偏好可以导致对婴儿和他们的母亲，进而对他们的家庭采取干预策略。此外，了解了解母乳中的味道的敏感期的时机，将有助于揭示在生命早期不接触这些味道的长期影响。从这些基本的行为工作中获得的知识可以转化为有效的行为干预措施，以促进蔬菜的接受，这是有效的和广泛实施的。 公共卫生相关性：早期经验改变了儿童与生俱来的口味好恶，促进了健康的饮食行为。我们提出了一项随机试验，以明确婴儿通过母乳中的风味变化学习味道的敏感期的时间和效果，以及遗传变异和母亲的生殖状态对蔬菜喜好的影响。这些知识可能导致为婴儿、母亲和家庭提供健康饮食干预的策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Early nutrition can have far-reaching effects on behavior: emerging research has revealed the existence of sensitive periods during postnatal development in which the developing brain has heightened sensitivity to environmental influences, including flavors of foods. While children's innate taste likes and dislikes create obstacles to healthy eating, research in humans and other animals has revealed that early experience can affect these likes and dislikes. The challenge is to determine whether there are optimum times when experience promotes greater liking of the flavors of healthy foods. Our previous experiments have shown that, as with other mammals, what a nursing mother eats during the first months of lactation can influence her child's food preferences. We propose to conduct a detailed randomized within- and between-subject study of women and their infants during a 16-month window, varying the timing and duration of exposure to three vegetable flavors (carrot, beet, and cabbage) to determine effects on the acceptance of these flavors by children, their mothers' own liking of these foods, and the likelihood that mothers will feed these foods to their children after weaning. Based on solid, previous research in humans and other animals, the over-arching goals of the proposed research are to specify the timing (Specific Aim 1) and consequences (Specific Aim 2) of the sensitive period for flavor learning in infants via flavor variety in mother's milk, and to determine the effects of reproductive state (Specific Aim 3) and genetic variation (Specific Aim 4) on vegetable liking in newly parturient mothers and their children. The hypotheses behind this research, examining highly pervasive and under-investigated behavioral phenomena surrounding how to introduce vegetables to children's diets, focus on early life, unlike many other studies that attempt to modify food habits in older children, and focus on the maternal-infant dyad because mothers' food consumption and feeding choices during the sensitive period may have far-reaching consequences for children's food exposures and choices later in life. Knowledge regarding the most efficacious time mothers should eat foods to develop preferences can lead to intervention strategies for both infants and their mothers, and consequently their families. Furthermore, knowledge about the timing of a sensitive period for learning about flavors in breast milk will shed light on long-term effects of not being exposed to these flavors early in life. The knowledge gleaned from this basic behavioral work could be translated to effective behavioral interventions to promote vegetable acceptance that are effective and implemented widely. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Early experience modifies children's innate taste likes and dislikes, and promotes healthy eating behaviors. We propose a randomized trial to specify the timing and effects of the sensitive period for flavor learning in infants via flavor variety in mother's milk, and the effects of genetic variation and the mother's reproductive state on vegetable liking. This knowledge may lead to strategies for healthy eating interventions for infants, mothers, and families.