Sensory perception across the lifespan
15 Nature vs. Nurture
As shown in Video 8, babies have an innate preference for sweetness. They respond neutrally to salty taste, while they have an innate aversion for sourness and bitterness. Other taste preferences develop through exposure and post-ingestive consequences, that is, through nurture.
Tastes are often described as having a nutrient-signaling function, eliciting expectations about the most important intrinsic quality of the food: its nutrient composition. Sweetness is, for example, highly associated to carbohydrate content, and sodium content is highly associated to saltiness. An umami taste can be related to the protein content of the food, and a fat taste is related with energy content[1].
Often, these tastes interact. For example, umami taste is also associated with sodium and fat content in foods, as highly savoury foods usually contain a lot of salt and fat in addition to glutamate. Bitter taste is often associated with alkaloids, reflecting poisonous substances, whereas sour taste is associated with acids commonly found in unripe fruits.
It is thought that for this reason, babies have an innate aversion to bitterness and sourness, and a preference for sweetness.
Video 8. Innate reactions to tastants as shown by facial expressions.
- Teo, P. S., van Langeveld, A. W., Pol, K., Siebelink, E., de Graaf, C., Yan, S. W., & Mars, M. (2018). Similar taste-nutrient relationships in commonly consumed Dutch and Malaysian foods. Appetite, 125, 32-41. ↵
The idea that the taste of the food is an indicator for its nutrient content.
The unbound version of this protein gives food an umami (or savory) taste. It usually gives taste to foods as a part of MSG (mono sodium glutamate)