Previous studies on taste acceptance have been conducted taste-by-taste and with a cross-sectional design. The aim of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the acceptance of sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami solutions, and a fat emulsion comparatively in a birth cohort from 3 to 20 months old. The acceptance of each taste relative to water was defined using proportional variables that are based on ingestion (IR) or liking evaluated by the experimenter (LR). These data were analyzed with mixed models that accounted for age and subject effects (minimum 152 observations/age/taste; maximum 216). For saltiness, acceptance increased sharply between 3 and 12 months old. The trajectories of acceptance were parallel for sweetness, sourness, and the umami tastes between 3 and 20 months old, with sweetness being preferred. Between 12 and 20 months old, the acceptance of all tastes, except bitterness, decreased, and at 20 months old, only sweetness was not rejected. The acceptance of bitterness remained stable. For the fat emulsion, acceptance evolved from indifference to rejection. The acceptance of saltiness and umami tastes were lower in girls than boys at 20 months old. The acceptance of the fat emulsion was higher in infants who were born heavier and taller. At 20 months old, the fat emulsion acceptance was higher in infants who were born from mothers with a higher prepregnancy body mass index. Finally, the taste differential reactivity (the standard deviation of the IRs) significantly increased from 3 to 20 months old.

its textural properties, which can increase the palatability of food (4). In fact, the fatty food consumption could have important implication in feeding behavior.The cerebral representation of the fatty texture of food has already been studied using neurophysiological investigations in macaque monkey (5-7) and functional MRI (fMRI) in humans (8-10). The primary (anterior insular and frontal opercular cortices) and secondary (orbitofrontal cortex) cerebral taste cortices in nonhuman primates responded to the presentation of fat in the mouth by encoding the nontaste properties of food, such as its viscosity, texture, grittiness, or temperature (5,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15), because similar responses of the same neurons were observed using stimulation by mineral oils, which have a similar texture but different chemical composition compared with FAs (6, 7). In humans, the results about the representation of fat in the brain are not as clear as those in nonhuman primates. One previous study using fMRI reported lower activation of the gustatory and reward cerebral regions and higher activation in somatosensory cerebral regions following a fatty stimulus than that with sugar (10). However, other studies highlighted cerebral activation by fatty food in the orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, suggesting that a fat stimulus play a role in the hedonic control of food intake (8,9).Other data demonstrated that long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) could be detected through specific receptor located in the mouth of rodents (16)(17)(18)(19) and humans (20,21), as is the case for sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami tastes. Other studies found the same results for short-chain (22) and medium-chain (23, 24) FAs. However, there is not sufficient evidence to define fat taste as a primary taste (25). Because oro-sensory perception of FFAs seems to be uncertain in humans, it remains a matter of debate (25-28).Abstract There is some evidence of specific oro-detection of FFAs in rodents and humans. The aim of this study was to record gustatory evoked potentials (GEPs) in response to FFA solutions and to compare GEPs in response to linoleic acid solution with GEPs obtained after stimulation with sweet and salty tastants. Eighteen healthy men were randomly stimulated with fatty (linoleic acid), sweet (sucrose), and salty (NaCl) solutions at two concentrations in the first experiment. Control recordings (n = 14) were obtained during stimulation by a paraffin oil mixture without FFA or by water. In the second experiment, 28 men were randomly stimulated with five FFA solutions and a paraffin emulsion. GEPs were recorded with electroencephalographic electrodes at Cz, Fz, and Pz. GEPs were observed in response to FFA in all participants. GEP characteristics did not differ according to the quality and the concentration of the solutions in the first experiment and according to the FFA in the second experiment. This study describes for the first time GEPs in response to FFA and demonstrates that the presence of FFA in the mouth triggers an activation of ...