The Relationship between Infant Facial Expressions and Food Acceptance

Abstract

Purpose of review: To highlight the range of methodological approaches used to objectively measure hedonic responses to taste stimuli during the first year of life and how these behavioral responses change with experience. Challenges inherent to this type of research are discussed.

Recent findings: Although newborns display characteristic orofacial reactivity to four of the five basic tastes, the facial expressions made and the amount of food consumed can be modified by experience: children learn to like what they are fed. In some cases changes in facial responses are concordant with infant consumption, whereas in other cases facial reactivity follows changes in intake.

Summary: Together with ingestive measurements, precise and objective measurements of orofacial reactivity provide an understanding of how early experiences shift the hedonic tone of the taste of foods, the foundation of dietary preferences.

Keywords: distaste; facial expressions; flavor; liking; pleasure; taste.

Figure 1

Facial expressions of distaste: brow lowerer; AU 4 (A), inner brow raise AU 1 (B), cheek raiser AU 6 (C), nose wrinkle AU 9 (D), upper lip raise AU 10 (E), and gape AU 26 + AU 27(F). Reproduced with permission from Pediatrics, Volume 120, Pages 1247–54, Copyright © 2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).