Читать книгу Child Psychology - Jean-Pascal Assailly - Страница 68

The fetus detects the aromas and flavors of the mother’s diet: the sweet tooth appears as early as the 20th week of pregnancy, and as early as the 32nd week, food aromas from the mother’s diet are detected, which constitutes a sort of gradual familiarization with her future food culture (e.g. curry in India and garlic and olive oil in the Mediterranean). These aromas are not only detected but memorized because, after birth, a baby will prefer an aroma (such as aniseed) to which it has been exposed.

Boris Cyrulnik reported the following experience: when you put garlic mayonnaise on the tongue of a New York baby, it makes a face, but on the tongue of a Marseille baby, it smiles. The taste has therefore been memorized, and this memorization takes place during REM sleep, a task made all the easier by the fact that a fetus spends most of its time dreaming.