Recently, scientists conducted 4D ultrasound scans of 100 pregnant women to understand how unborn babies react to the taste of food their mothers eat. The research team conducted a 4D ultrasound scan of the pregnant woman's abdomen and found that the fetus had a preference for facial reactions of kale and carrot ! The research results are published in Psychological Science (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Research results (Photo source: [1])
Researcher Beyza Ustun, a researcher at the Durham University Fetal and Neonatal Research Laboratory, said: "Study shows that babies can taste and smell in the uterus, but based on post-birth results, this study is the first to discover these reactions before birth." The researchers believe that this repeated exposure to taste before birth may help establish post-birth food preferences, which is related to information about healthy dietary intake and how to avoid "food pickiness" when the fetus is weaned.
Shortly after the mother ingested the smell of carrot or kale, the researchers observed the fetus' response to the carrot or kale flavor, and they were surprised to find that "it was really amazing to see unborn babies reacting to the kale or carrot flavor during the scanning process, and sharing these moments with their parents." The research team also included scientists from the University of Aston Birmingham and the National Center for Science Research at the University of Burgundy in France, who scanned mothers between 18 and 40 years of age at 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy to see the fetus' facial response to the kale and carrot flavor (Figures 2, 3).
Figure 2 Fetal response to kale (crying face) reaction (Photo source: [1])
Figure 3 Fetal response to kale (Photo source: [1])
About 20 minutes before each scan, mothers consume a capsule containing about 400 mg carrots or 400 mg kale powder, and asked them not to eat any food or seasoning drinks one hour before the scan.
Facial responses in both flavor groups compared with control fetuses that did not come into contact with either flavor showed that exposure to a small amount of carrot or kale flavor was sufficient to stimulate the response of to stimulate .
study found:
■ Fetal contact with carrots showed a "smiling face" reaction, while fetal contact with kale showed more "crying face" reactions. This discovery contributes to a further understanding of the development of taste and olfactory receptors in humans.
■ The types of food eaten by pregnant women may affect the baby's taste preference after birth and affect the fetus' establishment of healthy eating habits .
■ Humans experience taste through the combination of taste and smell. The fetus can produce smell and taste by inhaling and swallowing amniotic fluid in the uterus.
Professor Nadja Reissland said: 4D ultrasound scanning is a way to monitor fetal responses to mothers’ healthy behaviors such as smoking, as well as mental health including stress, depression and anxiety.
"This latest study may be of great significance to understand the earliest evidence that the fetus can perceive and distinguish different tastes and odors from foods that the mother consumes. Observing the fetus' facial responses, it can be assumed that a series of chemical stimuli enters the fetal environment through the maternal diet. This is of great significance to researchers to understand the development of taste and olfactory receptors and the associated perception and memory," said Professor Benoist Schaal.
The findings of this study also help to provide mothers with information on the importance of taste and healthy diet during pregnancy. Researchers have now begun to follow up on the same baby after birth to see if the taste they experience in the uterus will affect their acceptance of different foods.
Repeated prenatal flavor intake may lead to a preference for those experienced after childbirth. In other words, allows the fetus to be exposed to flavors that they don't like very much, such as kale, which may mean that they can adapt to these flavors in uterus in advance.The next goal is to check whether the fetus shows less “negative” responses to these odors over time, so that when babies first taste these odors outside the uterus, the researchers said.
Written by | Qiao Weijun
Typesetting | Muzijiu
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Reference materials:
[1]Ustun B, Reissland N, Covey J, et al . Flavor Sensing in Utero and Emerging Discriminative Behaviors in the Human Fetus. Psychol Sci. 2022 Sep 21:9567976221105460. doi: 10.1177/09567976221105460. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36130610.
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