Children's hedonic responses to the odors of alcoholic beverages: a window to emotions

Infant factors that impact the ecology of human milk secretion and composition-a report from "Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)" Working Group 3

Infants drive many lactation processes and contribute to the changing composition of human milk through multiple mechanisms. This review addresses the major topics of milk removal; chemosensory ecology for the parent-infant dyad; the infant's inputs into the composition of the human milk microbiome; and the impact of disruptions in gestation on the ecology of fetal and infant phenotypes, milk composition, and lactation. Milk removal, which is essential for adequate infant intake and continued milk synthesis through multiple hormonal and autocrine/paracrine mechanisms, should be effective, efficient, and comfortable for both the lactating parent and the infant. All 3 components should be included in the evaluation of milk removal. Breastmilk "bridges" flavor experiences in utero with postweaning foods, and the flavors become familiar and preferred. Infants can detect flavor changes in human milk resulting from parental lifestyle choices, including recreational drug use, and early experiences with the sensory properties of these recreational drugs impact subsequent behavioral responses. Interactions between the infant's own developing microbiome, that of the milk, and the multiple environmental factors that are drivers-both modifiable and nonmodifiable-in the microbial ecology of human milk are explored. Disruptions in gestation, especially preterm birth and fetal growth restriction or excess, impact the milk composition and lactation processes such as the timing of secretory activation, adequacy of milk volume and milk removal, and duration of lactation. Research gaps are identified in each of these areas. To assure a sustained and robust breastfeeding ecology, these myriad infant inputs must be systematically considered.

Associations between pre-adolescents' cognitive responses to alcohol-related cues, maternal drinking, and direct exposure to alcohol

The current study investigated pre-adolescent children's (N = 140, M_age = 10.11 years, SD = 1.48, 59.5% girls) implicit evaluations of and explicit expectancies about alcohol-related cues as a function of their mothers' drinking behaviors and their exposure to alcohol. Children's implicit evaluative responses were measured using the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), which consisted of trials that depicted pictures of either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, half of which were presented alone (inactive) and half of which were presented with a human interacting with the beverage (active). In addition, children's explicit expectancies, whether they had ever tasted alcohol, and their mothers' alcohol dependency and escape drinking motivations were measured. Results indicated that overall children's implicit evaluations were less positive for alcohol- than for non-alcohol-related cues, and those whose mothers reported higher alcohol dependency evaluated inactive alcohol-related cues more negatively. Moreover, those who had previously tasted alcohol endorsed positive expectancies more than negative expectancies. These findings contribute to our understanding of the processes through which implicit associations are learned in the context of addiction. Understanding cognitive as well as other potential biological and environmental factors that may predict drinking behaviors in youth will aid in the development of more effective evidence-based strategies for the prevention of alcoholism.

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

The impact of the olfactory sense is regularly apparent across development. The fetus is bathed in amniotic fluid (AF) that conveys the mother's chemical ecology. Transnatal olfactory continuity between the odours of AF and milk assists in the transition to nursing. At the same time, odours emanating from the mammary areas provoke appetitive responses in newborns. Odours experienced from the mother's diet during breastfeeding, and from practices such as pre-mastication, may assist in the dietary transition at weaning. In parallel, infants are attracted to and recognize their mother's odours; later, children are able to recognize other kin and peers based on their odours. Familiar odours, such as those of the mother, regulate the child's emotions, and scaffold perception and learning through non-olfactory senses. During juvenility and adolescence, individuals become more sensitive to some bodily odours, while the timing of adolescence itself has been speculated to draw from the chemical ecology of the family unit. Odours learnt early in life and within the family niche continue to influence preferences as mate choice becomes relevant. Olfaction thus appears significant in turning on, sustaining and, in cases when mother odour is altered, disturbing adaptive reciprocity between offspring and carer during the multiple transitions of development between birth and adolescence. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Olfactory communication in humans'.

A systematic review of children's alcohol-related knowledge, attitudes and expectancies

Understanding the nature of, and transitions in, young children's alcohol-related knowledge and attitudes is important to determining the age at which we should start educating children about alcohol and informing our understanding of the focus of such education. This paper aimed to explore current literature on the alcohol-related knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and expectancies of children aged 12years and under. Electronic databases were searched for papers published from January 2000-August 2016. Further papers were identified by a manual review of reference lists, and contacting corresponding authors of included papers. Papers that reported on children's knowledge or beliefs about alcohol, attitudes towards alcohol and/or expectancies regarding alcohol consumption were included. Seventeen cross-sectional, experimental or observational studies and seven longitudinal studies met the inclusion criteria. Data on key measures was tabulated. From a very young age children are aware of and able to identify alcohol, and have some knowledge of its effects; their attitudes become more positive with increasing age and these shifts appear to precede drinking initiation by some years. The small number of available studies, with different measures of knowledge, attitudes and expectancies, made assessment of bias unfeasible. Only three studies were published in the last five years. Children's knowledge of, and attitudes towards, alcohol form before they initiate alcohol use, and are likely acquired through observation. Alcohol-related education should commence before children begin drinking, and should encourage the delay of alcohol initiation, address social norms, and reduce positive expectancies.

What do preschoolers know about alcohol? Evidence from the electronic Appropriate Beverage Task (eABT)

While much is known about alcohol use in adolescence and beyond, factors leading to such behaviors are rooted much earlier in life. To investigate what preschoolers (aged three to six) know about alcohol and adult alcohol use, we developed an electronic version (eABT) of the Appropriate Beverage Task (Zucker, Kincaid, Fitzgerald, & Bingham, 1995). Drawings of adults and children in 11 everyday scenarios and 12 photos of different beverages were shown on a touchscreen computer to 301 three- to six-year-olds (49.5% girls) from 37 preschools and seven nurseries in French-speaking Switzerland. First, the children assigned a beverage to each individual in each drawing, and then were asked if the beverage contained alcohol and if they knew its name. The results revealed that 68.1% correctly classified beer, white wine, red wine and champagne as alcoholic beverages, while 46.4% knew the beverages by name, compared to 83.2% and 73.1% for non-alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic beverages were assigned more often to men (42.2%) than to women (28.7%) or to children (12.7%), and more often to adults at a party (39.4%) than to those playing outdoors (34.7%). In conclusion, children as young as three often have some beverage-specific knowledge. From the age of four onwards, they begin to know that alcoholic beverages contain alcohol. Children aged six and over tend to have some knowledge of adult drinking norms, i.e. who is drinking and in what circumstances.

Positive relationship between odor identification and affective responses of negatively valenced odors

Hedonic ratings of odors and olfactory preferences are influenced by a number of modulating factors, such as prior experience and knowledge about an odor’s identity. The present study addresses the relationship between knowledge about an odor’s identity due to prior experience, assessed by means of a test of cued odor identification, and odor pleasantness ratings in children who exhibit ongoing olfactory learning. Ninety-one children aged 8–11 years rated the pleasantness of odors in the Sniffin’ Sticks test and, subsequently, took the odor identification test. A positive association between odor identification and pleasantness was found for two unpleasant food odors (garlic and fish): higher pleasantness ratings were exhibited by those participants who correctly identified these odors compared to those who failed to correctly identify them. However, we did not find a similar effect for any of the more pleasant odors. The results of this study suggest that pleasantness ratings of some odors may be modulated by the knowledge of their identity due to prior experience and that this relationship might be more evident in unpleasant odors.

Relationship between alcohol dependence, escape drinking, and early neural attention to alcohol-related cues

RATIONALE

Previous work has indicated that implicit attentional biases to alcohol-related cues are indicative of susceptibility to alcohol dependence and escape drinking, or drinking to avoid dysphoric mood or emotions.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of the current study was to examine whether alcohol dependence and escape drinking were associated with early neural attentional biases to alcohol cues.

METHODS

Electroencephalography data were recorded from 54 college students who reported that they regularly drank alcohol, while they viewed alcohol and control pictures that contained human content (active) or no human content (inactive).

RESULTS

Those who were alcohol dependent showed more neural attentional bias to the active alcohol-related stimuli than to the matched control stimuli early in processing, as indicated by N1 amplitude. Escape drinkers showed greater neural attention to the active alcohol cues than non-escape drinkers, as measured by larger N2 amplitudes.

CONCLUSIONS

While alcohol dependence is associated with enhanced automatic attentional biases early in processing, escape drinking is associated with more controlled attentional biases to active alcohol cues during a relatively later stage in processing. These findings reveal important information about the time-course of attentional processing in problem drinkers and have important implications for addiction models and treatment.

Take me away: the relationship between escape drinking and attentional bias for alcohol-related cues

Previous research has indicated that implicit attentional bias to alcohol-related cues may serve as a cognitive measure of susceptibility to alcohol dependence. The primary goal of the current study was to examine whether college students who drink to escape dysphoric emotions or moods (i.e., escape drinkers) have stronger attentional biases for alcohol-related cues than non-escape drinkers. Additionally, because previous research has shown that presentation time and content of smoking-related stimuli moderates differences between smokers' and nonsmokers' reaction times, this study sought to determine whether these effects generalized to alcohol-related stimuli. Participants who were identified as either escape (n = 74) or non-escape drinkers (n = 48) completed a dot-probe task in which alcohol-related pictures that contained humans interacting with the alcohol-related cues (active) or alcohol-related cues alone (inactive) were presented along with matched control pictures. These stimuli were presented for either 500 ms or 2000 ms to determine whether attentional biases occur as a function of initial or maintained attention to the alcohol-related cues. Escape drinkers displayed a significantly stronger attentional bias for alcohol-related inactive cues at longer presentation times (i.e., 2000 ms) compared to non-escape drinkers. This bias was independent of alcohol dependence and family history of alcoholism. These results suggest that in addition to dependence and family history, escape drinking is an important factor to consider when examining attentional biases to alcohol-related cues.

Peering through the smoke: the effect of parental smoking behavior and addiction on daily smokers' attentional bias to smoking cues

Although previous research has demonstrated that individuals with parents who smoke are more likely to become smokers and are less successful in smoking cessation efforts compared with those without a smoking parent, the reasons for this link have not been established. In the current study, implicit attentional bias to smoking-related cues was investigated in college-age smokers, based on models of addiction that suggest that attention to drug-related cues plays an important role in drug addiction. Sixty-one participants completed a dot-probe task to measure attentional bias to smoking-related and matched non-smoking-related control pictures. Results indicated that while those who reported smoking occasionally did not demonstrate an attentional bias, daily smokers who had a smoking parent showed more of an attentional bias to the smoking cues than those without a smoking parent, but only to cues that did not contain human content. In addition to parental influence, nicotine dependence explained a significant portion of the variance in the attentional bias for daily smokers. Implications for models of nicotine addiction and the development of smoking cessation programs are discussed.