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| Poster #267 Assessing retronasal smell perception in young children using a pictorial rating scale and facial action coding |
| Sarah Colbert1, Gaby de la Vega1, Madison Patel2, Joost Maier1 1Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, United States 2Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, United States |
Flavor perception is a critical determinant of food choice, which directly relates to risk for disease. Previous work has shown that early childhood marks a critical time for establishing flavor preferences. Often referred to simply as “taste”, flavor is in fact a multisensory experience that combines taste and retronasal olfaction. Although taste preferences are innate, the development of retronasal odor preferences remains unknown, partly due to the difficulty in assessing flavor perception in young children. The primary goal of this study is assess differences in retronasal odor perception between young children and adults using a pictorial rating scale and facial expressions. Children ages 3 to 6 years old (n=88) and one of their parents (n=88) were asked to sample solutions containing either a taste or odor. A three step protocol was implemented to assess detection and hedonic evaluation using a pictorial rating scale. Detectability and hedonic ratings for sweet and bitter tastes followed predictable patterns in both age groups, demonstrating validity of the rating scale. With respect to odor perception, detectability of odors was lower among children. Compared to adults, some odors (mango and apple) were rated as negative more frequently by children, whereas other odors (broccoli and pumpkin) were rated as positive more frequently by children. Facial action units (AUs) were scored by a FACS-certified coder for a semi-overlapping dataset of child-parent dyads (n= 123 dyads). Following a similar pattern to the rating data, broccoli and pumpkin odors elicited fewer negative AUs, while apple and mango elicited more negative AUs among children compared to adults. Together, this suggests that retronasal odor preferences are not innate and can potentially be modified by experience. |