The Good Tastes Study: Associations Between Infants’ Physiological Regulation and Responses to Bitter Green Vegetables (P11-083-19)

摘要

ObjectivesInfants are predisposed to reject bitter tastes in order to prevent the ingestion of toxic substances. Thus, some infants may respond to bitter flavors with a physiological response consistent with how they respond to environmental threat, with implications for their behavior. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is an index of parasympathetic regulation of the heart, which decreases in response to challenging or threatening stimuli (i.e., RSA withdrawal), allowing the individual to engage in a fight or flight response (Porges, 2007). Here, we examined whether RSA withdrawal (RSAW) was associated with infants’ behavioral reactions to bitter green vegetable purées.