Mennella J A, Beauchamp G K
Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA.
Chem Senses. 1998 Feb;23(1):11-7. doi: 10.1093/chemse/23.1.11.
To evaluate breastfed infants' responses to scented objects, we videotaped the facial and bodily reactions of sixty-three infants as they explored, in succession, three toys that were identical in appearance but different in their characteristic odor. Two of the toys were scented with odorants previously shown to be transmitted to human milk, one with ethanol and the other with vanilla, whereas the third toy was unscented. Each videotape was subjected to frame-by-frame analysis to measure a variety of behaviors that are considered either to be exploratory in nature in that they lead to perceptual information about the object or to reflect the infants' hedonic reaction. Analyses of these behaviors revealed that the infants looked more and vocalized less in the presence of the vanilla-scented toy and spent less time manipulating the ethanol-scented toy when compared with the unscented toy. Moreover, differential exposure to the odors of ethanol and vanilla, as indicated by differential consumption of alcohol by a parent or use of vanilla-scented product by the mother, was related to differential responses to these odors. These findings suggest that human infants are able to detect and retain information about the chemical features of their environment.
为了评估母乳喂养婴儿对有气味物体的反应，我们拍摄了63名婴儿的面部和身体反应，这些婴儿依次探索了三个外观相同但气味不同的玩具。其中两个玩具分别带有先前已证明会传递到母乳中的气味剂，一个带有乙醇，另一个带有香草味，而第三个玩具没有气味。对每段录像进行逐帧分析，以测量各种行为，这些行为要么本质上具有探索性，因为它们能带来有关物体的感知信息，要么反映婴儿的享乐反应。对这些行为的分析表明，与无气味玩具相比，婴儿在面对香草味玩具时注视更多、发声更少，并且在操作乙醇味玩具上花费的时间更少。此外，父母对酒精的不同摄入量或母亲对香草味产品的使用所表明的对乙醇和香草气味的不同接触，与对这些气味的不同反应有关。这些发现表明，人类婴儿能够检测并保留有关其环境化学特征的信息。
