Relationships between autistic traits, taste preference, taste perception, and eating behaviour

Autistic traits and eating behaviors in Chinese preschoolers: Role of sensory profiles and home environment

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to 1) explore the association between autistic traits and eating behaviors in Chinese preschoolers; 2) explore the mediating role of sensory processing patterns on the relation of autistic traits and eating-related behaviors; and 3) examine home nurturing environment as a moderator between autistic traits and eating-related behaviors. We hypothesize that there is a significant association between autistic traits and eating behaviors, which is mediated by sensory processing patterns and moderated by the home nurturing environment.

METHOD

509 children aged 3-4 years participated in this cross-sectional research. They were assessed using the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2) for autistic traits, the Chinese Preschoolers' Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CPEBQ) for eating-related behaviors, the Short Sensory Profile-Second Edition (SSP-2) for sensory processing patterns, and the Children Home Nurture Environment Questionnaire (CHNEQ) for home nurturing environment. Mediation regression analyses were used to examine the role of sensory processing patterns, while moderation analyses to examine the role of home nurturing environment.

RESULTS

We observed a positive association between autistic traits and eating behavior problems among typically developed children. Sensory processing patterns significantly mediated the impact of autistic traits on children's eating-related behaviors and home nurturing environment also moderated this relationship.

DISCUSSION

Our research suggests that Chinese preschoolers with higher autistic traits may face more eating challenges when they possess more heightened sensory processing patterns, while living in supportive home environments helps to improve their eating behaviors. These findings contribute to the understanding of how and to what extent eating problems are influenced by autistic traits, and they offer insight into the alleviation of eating problems from the perspectives of sensory patterns and family nurturing environments.

Taste Sensor Assessment of Bitterness in Medicines: Overview and Recent Topics

In recent decades, taste sensors have been increasingly utilized to assess the taste of oral medicines, particularly focusing on bitterness, a major obstacle to patient acceptance and adherence. This objective and safe method holds promise for enhancing the development of patient-friendly medicines in pharmaceutical companies. This review article introduces its application in measuring the intensity of bitterness in medicine, confirming the achievement of taste masking, distinguishing taste differences between branded and generic medicines, and identifying substances to suppress bitterness in target medicines. Another application of the sensor is to predict a significant increase in bitterness when medicine is taken with certain foods/beverages or concomitant medication. Additionally, to verify the sensor's predictability, a significant correlation has been demonstrated between the output of a bitter-sensitive sensor designed for drug bitterness (BT0) and the bitterness responses of the human taste receptor hT2R14 from BitterDB (huji.ac.il). As a recent advancement, a novel taste sensor equipped with lipid/polymer membranes modified by 3-Br-2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,6-DHBA), based on the concept of allostery, is introduced. This sensor successfully predicts the bitterness of non-charged pharmaceuticals with xanthine skeletons, such as caffeine or related compounds. Finally, the future prospects of taste sensors are discussed.

Synthetic Colors in Food: A Warning for Children's Health

This study addressed the harmful effects of artificial colors in pediatric populations, including children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as those without behavioral disorders. There is a consensus that synthetic food colorings have several impacts on consumers, especially pediatrics, due to their influence on sensory appeal, which can encourage preference for certain foods. The results revealed that these color additives are directly linked to a series of health problems, with a greater impact on children, including a predisposition to pathological conditions such as carcinogenic, allergenic, mutagenic, cytotoxic, and clastogenic activities, as well as gastrointestinal and respiratory problems, in addition to behavioral changes in children with and without diagnosed disorders. The harms of synthetic dyes in children with or without comorbidities are worrying and require a careful and proactive approach from parents, caregivers and public authorities.

Autistic traits and ARFID-associated eating behaviors in preschoolers: Mediating effects of sensory processing patterns

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine the association between autistic traits and Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)-associated eating behaviors in preschool-age children and investigated whether this association was mediated by sensory processing patterns.

METHOD

A cross-sectional, parent-reported study was conducted between July 2022 and March 2023 among 503 preschoolers aged 4-6 years in China. Parents provided assessments of their children's autistic traits using the Social Responsiveness Scale, sensory processing patterns using the Short Sensory Profile 2, and ARFID-associated eating behaviors using the Nine Items ARFID Screen. The mediation model based on ordinary least squares regression was employed to test the mediating effects of sensory processing patterns between autistic traits and ARFID-associated eating behaviors.

RESULTS

The results indicated significant associations among autistic traits, ARFID-associated eating behaviors, and sensory processing patterns. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that sensory processing patterns played a partial mediating role in the relationship between autistic traits and ARFID-associated eating behaviors. Specifically, autistic traits were observed to weaken ARFID-associated eating behaviors, particularly picky eating and poor appetite, through Registration, while simultaneously fostering them through Sensitivity and Avoiding.

DISCUSSION

Our study is limited to some extent by the inability to draw longitudinal conclusions from cross-sectional data. Nevertheless, it underscores the significance of early identification and intervention for food avoidance/restriction behaviors due to sensory processing abnormalities in children with heightened autistic traits. This proactive approach may contribute to mitigating ARFID-associated eating behaviors that might drive clinical symptoms of ARFID.

Eating disorder in children: Impact on quality of life, with a spotlight on autism spectrum disorder

Eating behavior, which includes eating habits and preferences, frequency of eating, and other features related to diet, is a major characteristic not only of a person's nutritional status, but also of health in general. In recent years, the prevalence of eating disorders in children has tended to increase; they also require cross-system approaches in diagnosis by a variety of specialists and correction requires appropriate selection of optimal methods. Maladaptive eating attitudes formed at an early age can contribute to the formation of eating disorders, which can lead to or worsen various neuropsychiatric diseases, digestive diseases, and other related conditions. In children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), eating disorders often appear earlier than other major symptoms of the condition. However, the clinical manifestations of eating disorders in children with ASD are varied and differ in severity and duration, whereas these disorders in neurotypical children might present as short-lived and may not lead to serious consequences. Nevertheless, cases of progressive eating disorders accompanied by a child presenting as under- or overweight and/or with macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies cannot be excluded. Given the high prevalence of eating disorders in children, many researchers have highlighted the lack of a valid and universally accepted instruments to assess atypical eating behaviors in this population. Therefore, in this review, we wanted to highlight the problems and causes of eating disorders in children, and also to analyze the existing approaches to the validation of these problems, taking into account the existing behavioral features in children with ASD.

Reasons for Adding Different Tastes: An Example of Sprinkling Salt on Watermelon and Its Relation to Subjective Taste Perception, Taste Preference, and Autistic Traits

Each basic taste can be perceived differently due to stored knowledge and differences in receptor properties. Depending on how these tastes are perceived, eating behavior may change. In this study, we examined the relationships between subjective feelings of taste perception, taste preferences, and autistic traits with the behavior of adding flavor to food using an example of sprinkling salt on watermelon. From an online questionnaire survey among a general Japanese population, we found that salty and sour tastes could be subjectively perceived more quickly than sweet and umami tastes, in line with our expectations. Moreover, the hedonic responses to watermelon with salt were negatively correlated with a preference for bitter taste, i.e., those participants who dislike bitter taste sensations tended to enjoy watermelon with salt more. There was no correlation between the hedonic response to watermelon with salt and the subjective feeling of taste perceptions and autistic traits and no correlation between autistic traits, and the subjective feeling of taste perceptions and taste preferences. These results suggest that adding different tastes could be influenced by taste preferences; thus, the addition of a different taste was thought to be related to an unconscious motivation to reduce bitterness.

Vitamin D3-Loaded Nanoemulsions as a Potential Drug Delivery System for Autistic Children: Formulation Development, Safety, and Pharmacokinetic Studies

The aim of the current study is the development of a vitamin D₃ (VD3)-loaded nanoemulsion (NE) formulation to improve VD3 oral bioavailability for management of vitamin D inadequacy in autistic children. Eight NE formulations were prepared by high-speed homogenization followed by ultrasonication. Four vegetable oils were employed along with two concentrations of Span 20 as the emulsifier. Glycerol, fructose, and mango flavor were included as viscosity modifier, sweetening, and flavoring agents, respectively. The prepared VD3-loaded NE formulations exhibited high drug content (> 98%), droplet size (DS) ranging from 61.15 to 129.8 nm with narrow size distribution, zeta potential values between - 9.83 and - 19.22 mV, and acceptable pH values (4.59-5.89). Storage stability showed that NE formulations underwent coalescence and phase separation during 6 months at room temperature, whereas at refrigerated conditions, formulations showed slight creaming. The optimum formulation (VD3-NE6) revealed a non-significant DS growth at refrigerated conditions and spherical morphology under transmission electron microscopy. VD3-NE6 did not produce any toxic effects to rats treated orally for 3 months, where normal blood picture and kidney and liver functions were observed compared to control rats. Also, serum calcium, oxidative stress, and apoptosis biomarkers remained within normal levels, indicating the safety of the optimum formulation. Furthermore, evaluation of VD3-NE6 oral bioavailability depicted a significant increase in AUC_0-72 and C_max with decreased T_max compared to plain VD3. The optimum formulation demonstrated improved stability, safety, and oral bioavailability indicating the potential for successful management of vitamin D deficiency in autistic children.

Experience-dependent plasticity of gustatory insular cortex circuits and taste preferences

Early experience with food influences taste preference in adulthood. How gustatory experience influences development of taste preferences and refinement of cortical circuits has not been investigated. Here, we exposed weanling mice to an array of taste solutions and determined the effects on the preference for sweet in adulthood. We demonstrate an experience-dependent shift in sucrose preference persisting several weeks following the termination of exposure. A shift in sucrose palatability, altered neural responsiveness to sucrose, and inhibitory synaptic plasticity in the gustatory portion of the insular cortex (GC) were also induced. The modulation of sweet preference occurred within a restricted developmental window, but restoration of the capacity for inhibitory plasticity in adult GC reactivated the sensitivity of sucrose preference to taste experience. Our results establish a fundamental link between gustatory experience, sweet preference, inhibitory plasticity, and cortical circuit function and highlight the importance of early life nutrition in setting taste preferences.

Modulation of the thermosensory system by oxytocin

Oxytocin (OT) is a neurohormone involved early in neurodevelopment and is implicated in multiple functions, including sensory modulation. Evidence of such modulation has been observed for different sensory modalities in both healthy and pathological conditions. This review summarizes the pleiotropic modulation that OT can exercise on an often overlooked sensory system: thermosensation. This system allows us to sense temperature variations and compensate for the variation to maintain a stable core body temperature. Oxytocin modulates autonomic and behavioral mechanisms underlying thermoregulation at both central and peripheral levels. Hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity for different sensory modalities, including thermosensitivity, is a common feature in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), recapitulated in several ASD mouse models. These sensory dysregulations occur early in post-natal development and are correlated with dysregulation of the oxytocinergic system. In this study, we discussed the potential link between thermosensory atypia and the dysregulation of the oxytocinergic system in ASD.