ABSTRACT
When crying newborns are provided with a taste of sucrose, a set of quite remarkable and robust behavioral phenomena occur, which we hereafter refer to as “sucrose taste effects.” Newborns respond by (a) quietening for a prolonged period of time (about 5 minutes or more following the stimulus); (b) increasing mouthing movements, especially in the first minute following the stimulus, which then tend to decrease rapidly; and (c) increasing hand-mouth contacts, which tend to last just over a minute, or about the length of time that the mouthing occurs. This impressive set of phenomena, first systematically reported by Elliott Blass and his colleagues (Rochat, Blass, & Hoffmeyer, 1988; Smith, Fillion, & Blass, 1990), has been replicated a number of times (Barr et al., 1994; Barr, Pantel, Wright, Gravel, & Young, 1995; Blass & Ciaramitaro, 1994; Blass, Fillion, Rochat, Hoffmeyer, & Metzher, 1989; Blass & Smith, 1992; Graillon, Barr, Young, Wright, & Hendricks, 1997; Rao, Blass, Brignol, Marino, & Glass, 1993). The robustness and replicability of these phenomena make them potentially attractive as potential probes of orogustatory (or tasteinduced) soothing mechanisms in infants for a number of reasons. First, they provide behavioral outcomes that are easily measurable (crying, mouthing, and hand-mouth contact). Second, they bring behavioral soothing under experimental control in a relatively simple paradigm. This permits test conditions to be manipulated ethically so that factors modifying the response can be assessed. Finally, the responses can be compared to those from other nontaste, or orotactile (contact-induced) soothing stimuli, such as pacifiers. Such comparisons permit investigators to explore similarities and differences in the responses that may provide important information about multiple, alternative mechanisms available to the infant and caregiver to help regulate behavioral state and emotional responses.
