Background. Flavors from the mother9s diet during pregnancy are transmitted to amniotic fluid and swallowed by the fetus. Consequently, the types of food eaten by women during pregnancy and, hence, the flavor principles of their culture may be experienced by the infants before their first exposure to solid foods. Some of these same flavors will later be experienced by infants in breast milk, a liquid that, like amniotic fluid, comprises flavors that directly reflect the foods, spices, and beverages eaten by the mother. The present study tested the hypothesis that experience with a flavor in amniotic fluid or breast milk modifies the infants9 acceptance and enjoyment of similarly flavored foods at weaning. Methods. Pregnant women who planned on breastfeeding their infants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. The women consumed either 300 mL of carrot juice or water for 4 days per week for 3 consecutive weeks during the last trimester of pregnancy and then again during the first 2 months of lactation. The mothers in 1 group drank carrot juice during pregnancy and water during lactation; mothers in a second group drank water during pregnancy and carrot juice during lactation, whereas those in the control group drank water during both pregnancy and lactation. Approximately 4 weeks after the mothers began complementing their infants9 diet with cereal and before the infants had ever been fed foods or juices containing the flavor of carrots, the infants were videotaped as they fed, in counterbalanced order, cereal prepared with water during 1 test session and cereal prepared with carrot juice during another. Immediately after each session, the mothers rated their infants9 enjoyment of the food on a 9-point scale. Results. The results demonstrated that the infants who had exposure to the flavor of carrots in either amniotic fluid or breast milk behaved differently in response to that flavor in a food base than did nonexposed control infants. Specifically, previously exposed infants exhibited fewer negative facial expressions while feeding the carrot-flavored cereal compared with the plain cereal, whereas control infants whose mothers drank water during pregnancy and lactation exhibited no such difference. Moreover, those infants who were exposed to carrots prenatally were perceived by their mothers as enjoying the carrot-flavored cereal more compared with the plain cereal. Although these same tendencies were observed for the amount of cereal consumed and the length of the feeds, these findings were not statistically significant. Conclusions. Prenatal and early postnatal exposure to a flavor enhanced the infants9 enjoyment of that flavor in solid foods during weaning. These very early flavor experiences may provide the foundation for cultural and ethnic differences in cuisine.

Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants.

Olfactory responsiveness was assessed in 24 neonates born to mothers who had or had not consumed anise flavour during pregnancy. Both groups of infants were followed-up for behavioural markers of attraction and aversion when exposed to anise odour and a control odour immediately after birth and on day 4. Infants born to anise-consuming mothers evinced a stable preference for anise odour over this period, whereas those born to anise non-consuming mothers displayed aversion or neutral responses. This study provides the first clear evidence that through their diet human mothers influence the hedonic polarity of their neonates' initial olfactory responses. The findings have potential implications for the early mother-to-infant transmission of chemosensory information relative to food and addictive products.

Human foetuses learn odours from their pregnant mother's diet

In this study, 40 Japanese, 44 German and 39 Mexican women were presented with 18 everyday odorants. They were asked to rate them for intensity on a six-point scale from not detectable to very strong, for pleasantness on an 11-point scale from -5, to neutral at 0, to +5, and for familiarity on a six-point scale from completely unknown to extremely familiar. Consistent positive correlations were found between paired rating scores for the three measures, and although they were not particularly strong (r(s) range, 0.19-0.60), for most odorants all three correlations were significant. Similar results were obtained whether the data were analyzed on an individual or a national basis. Most notable were the consistent positive correlations between perceived intensity and ratings of familiarity and hedonic strength. It is suggested that the perceived intensity of the odorants depended not only on stimulus concentration but probably also on experience-dependent factors.

Perception of Everyday Odors—Correlation between Intensity, Familiarity and Strength of Hedonic Judgement

The science of genetics is undergoing a paradigm shift. Recent discoveries, including the activity of retrotransposons, the extent of copy number variations, somatic and chromosomal mosaicism, and the nature of the epigenome as a regulator of DNA expressivity, are challenging a series of dogmas concerning the nature of the genome and the relationship between genotype and phenotype. According to three widely held dogmas, DNA is the unchanging template of heredity, is identical in all the cells and tissues of the body, and is the sole agent of inheritance. Rather than being an unchanging template, DNA appears subject to a good deal of environmentally induced change. Instead of identical DNA in all the cells of the body, somatic mosaicism appears to be the normal human condition. And DNA can no longer be considered the sole agent of inheritance. We now know that the epigenome, which regulates gene expressivity, can be inherited via the germline. These developments are particularly significant for behavior genetics for at least three reasons: First, epigenetic regulation, DNA variability, and somatic mosaicism appear to be particularly prevalent in the human brain and probably are involved in much of human behavior; second, they have important implications for the validity of heritability and gene association studies, the methodologies that largely define the discipline of behavior genetics; and third, they appear to play a critical role in development during the perinatal period and, in particular, in enabling phenotypic plasticity in offspring. I examine one of the central claims to emerge from the use of heritability studies in the behavioral sciences, the principle of minimal shared maternal effects, in light of the growing awareness that the maternal perinatal environment is a critical venue for the exercise of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. This consideration has important implications for both developmental and evolutionary biology.

/pdf/behavior-genetics-and-postgenomics-3ilybhhxf4.pdf

Behavior genetics and postgenomics.

Bi ds e i an chemical compounds, though ornithologists rarely consider them. Avian odors, for example, are readily detectable to humans in at least 17 avian orders and 80 genera (Table 1; data from Weldon and Rappole 1997). Scents consist of volatile chemicals, and birds embrace a remarkable diversity of aromas, such as the musky plumage of storm-petrels (Hydrobatidae; Jacob and Zisweiler 1982); the tangerine-like perfume of Crested Auklets (Aethia cristatella; Humphrey and Phillips 1958); the acrid, sour odor of Hooded Pitohuis (Pitohui dichrous) and Variable Pitohuis (P. kirkocephalus; Dumbacher et al. 1992); the sweet and dusty fragrance of the Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus; Butler 1989, J. C. Hagelin pers. obs.); and the foul stench of the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoatzin; see Weldon and Rappole 1997). Birds also produce a variety of substances consisting of larger, less volatile compounds. Frequently odorless, these occur in various forms, such as saturated fatt y acids of uropygial gland secretions (Jacob and Zisweiler 1982, Sweeney et al. 2004) or toxins sequestered in plumage or skin (e.g., Dumbacher et al. 1992). Human detection of an avian compound clearly does not mean that it is important to a bird, unless this has been verifi ed experimentally. Here, we focus on two major types of adaptive functions that have been proposed for a variety of odors and other chemical substances that birds either produce themselves or sequester from secondary sources. First, avian compounds may serve as a chemical defense. This includes protection against predators, ectoparasites, and microbes and can involve substances that act as an interspecifi c deterrent or signal (e.g., Cott 1947, Swennen 1968, Dumbacher et al. 1992, Mouritsen and Madsen 1994, Douglas et al. 2001, Shawkey et al. 2003). Alternatively, some authors posit that avian compounds function as an intraspecifi c chemosignal, similar to those found in other vertebrates, such as mammals (e.g., Balthazart and Schoff eniels 1979; review in Roper 1999, Hagelin 2007). Recently, birds have been shown to recognize conspecifi c body odor (Hagelin et al. 2003) and personal body odor or mate odor (Bonadonna and Nevitt 2004). Some chemical signatures are even individually specifi c (e.g., Bonadonna et al. 2003a, b, 2004, 2007). The use of chemical signals in intraspecifi c communication has the potential to fundamentally alter how we interpret bird behavior. The idea is relatively new and challenges the traditional view that birds predominantly respond to their world through sight and sound. Birds readily respond to chemicals derived 1Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081, USA; and 2Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, A1B 3X9, Canada Julie C. Hagelin1,3 and Ian L. Jones2 BIRD ODORS AND OTHER CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES: A DEFENSE MECHANISM OR OVERLOOKED MODE OF INTRASPECIFIC COMMUNICATION? The Auk 124(3):741–761, 2007 © The American Ornithologists’ Union, 2007. Printed in USA.

https://bioone.org/journals/The-Auk/volume-124/issue-3/0004-8038(2007)124[741:BOAOCS]2.0.CO;2/BIRD-ODORS-AND-OTHER-CHEMICAL-SUBSTANCES--A-DEFENSE-MECHANISM/10.1642/0004-8038(2007)124[741:BOAOCS]2.0.CO;2.pdf

Bird odors and other chemical substances: a defense mechanism or overlooked mode of intraspecific communication?

Evidence that odors can be learned prenatally further blurs the distinction between inborn and acquired responses and provides an unusual opportunity to investigate processes underlying the acquisition of information during the earliest stages of development (reviewed in [1]). This is particularly well illustrated by the development of food preference in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Doe rabbits visit and nurse their young for only 3 to 4 min each day and usually wean them abruptly at about day 26 in preparation for the next litter. Under such circumstances, the young have little opportunity to learn what to eat from their mother by direct behavioral observation, but may do so indirectly by the preand postnatal acquisition of chemical information associated with her diet [2]. If pregnant does are fed aromatic juniper berries, which form part of the rabbit's natural diet, then at weaning, their pups demonstrate a preference for juniper, even if raised by a foster mother fed standard laboratory food and thus without postnatal juniper experience [2]. Although the development and expression of preferences certainly depends on central mechanisms, we speculated that such exposure learning, occurring in the apparent absence of conventional reinforces, might also be associated with the enhanced development of subpopulations of sensory cells or their receptors, and result in greater sensitivity to odors experienced during early life. Such enhancement seemed possible for several reasons: the clear evidence for prenatal odor perception accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of sensory cells, which occurs in the rabbit even postnatally [31, our experience that this increase is dependent on environmental stimulation during the first few days after birth [4], and the narrowing of the response profile of sensory cells reported to occur in the rat immediately before birth [5]. As a first test of this hypothesis, it was the purpose of the present study to establish whether prenatal experience of the mother's diet could be demonstrated behaviorally in newborn rabbits immediately after birth, and whether stimulus-specific, prenatal enhancement of sensitivity could be demonstrated postnatally by recording the electro-olfactogram (EOG), that is, the change in voltage across the olfactory epithelium in response to olfactory stimulation [6]. For this, pups were separated from their mother at birth and behavioral tests were conducted on the first postnatal day before the first suckling experience. All animals for which electrophysiological data were obtained continued to be tested each day until recording of the EOG either on days 1 3 or days 9-14. Domestic, chinchilla-breed rabbits (Chbb, Thomae, Biberach) were used. From mid gestation, 10°70 of the experimental does' daily ration of lab food (Altromin) was replaced by dried, commercially available juniper berries, whereas control does received the standard diet only. To establish whether learning had occurred, and thus that experimental litters had indeed been exposed to juniper, pups were tested for 3 min each day in a 22x32 cm arena containing three freshly chopped juniper berries beneath the wire-mesh floor at one end. The time pups spent on each side of the arena was recorded, and the number of trials in which one or the other side was preferred by control and experimental animals was compared using the chisquare test. Whereas control pups tended to avoid the juniper odor, pups from experimental mothers showed a clear preference for it, and throughout the 8-day test period spent more time in a greater number of trials on the scented side than controls (Fig. 1, p < 0.001). This was the case even on day 1, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the prenatal treatment (p < 0.001). To investigate the influence of this odor experience on the functional properties of the olfactory epithelium, randomly selected pups were sacrificed and the nasal septum removed. To record the EOG, the epithelium was placed on a silver-plated spoon and kept moist with saline solution. The surface electrode, an agarand saline-filled glass pipette (30-40 ~tm 2~) containing a silver chloride wire, was positioned at the approximate center of the epithelium between the accessory olfactory nerves which served as landmarks. EOG potentials were monitored on an oscilloscope and a polygraph. The odorants juniper oil (V6gele, Stuttgart), and as a reference stimulus, isoamyl acetate (Merck) were delivered as a fivefold dilution series (1 ml vapor/600ms every 2rain) into a continuous, moisturized stream of oxygen (200ml/min) using a syringe olfactometer. At each dilution step, each odorant was delivered alternately, and three such dilution series, separated by a blank, were recorded for each animal. Stimulation with either odorant resulted in consistent, concentration-dependent amplitudes in both the juniper-exposed and control epithelia (Fig. 2). However, comparing the amplitudes for juniper with those for isoamyl acetate showed the juniper amplitudes to be relatively greater for epithelia from the exposed than from the control animals. When for each animal and dilution step, the relative dif-

Specific enhancement of olfactory receptor sensitivity associated with foetal learning of food odors in the rabbit

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Specific enhancement of olfactory receptor sensitivity associated with foetal learning of food odors in the rabbit