Introduction to Multi-Sensory Taste Perception

‘Cooking is probably the most multisensual art. I try to stimulate all the senses.’ (Ferran Adrià, El Bulli)

“ Neuroscientists have come to realise that their insights, from studies of the multisensory

integration can be extended to help explain flavour perception

Psychology and cognitive neuroscience can help create novel flavours, taste sensations and dining experiences that can more effectively stimulate

the mind, and not just the mouth, of the consumer”

Professor Charles Spence head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory based at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University

Areas of Interest

• How all the senses play their own roles in our appreciation of food

• How our enjoyment of food is affected by other influences, our environment, our mood, how it is presented, who prepares it, etc.

Taste Perception

Perception of Flavour

One thing is certain, we all find it extremely difficult to distinguish between tastes and smells

The Ventriloquist In Your Mouth

• When bacon and egg ice-cream was first created, it was only moderately pleasant

• The breakthrough came when a piece of crispy fried bread was added to the plate

• It appears as though the bacon is ‘ventriloquised’ towards, and hence becomes perceptually localised within, the crispy bread, while the eggy flavour stays behind in the more texturally appropriate soft ice-cream

Aroma Sensitivity

• Humans remarkable sense of smell

• We can distinguish a diversity of odors- approximately 10,000 scents

• Scent through the back of the mouth is called retronasal olfaction

• Scents via the nostrils it is called orthonasal olfaction

Taste Sensitivity• Taste sensitivity refers to the intensity with which you perceive tastes and flavors

• People with high taste sensitivity experience tastes, and usually smells, too, as being very strong

• They are also able to distinguish individual flavors in a mixture very well

Measuring Taste Sensitivity

• People who have the active gene will taste the bitterness of PROP, whereas people who have an inactive gene will not taste anything

• The more taste buds you have; the stronger the taste signal your brain receives, whether from PROP or from natural food

• The more attentive you are to a stimulus, the stronger it may seem

Taster Types Highly sensitive tasters Moderately sensitive

tastersMildly sensitive tasters

Very strong sensation from PROP and mint

Moderate to strong sensation from PROP and

mint

Weak to undetectable sensation from PROP and

mint

The flavor of food is important

The flavor of food is important

The flavor of food is not that important

Great variation in the number of foods liked; often passionate about

food

Many foods liked; few foods disliked; often

passionate about food

Many foods liked; few foods disliked; not

passionate about food

• Mildly sensitive taster

• The fungiform papillae are the small pinkish dots on this tongue

• Note that they are small and seed-shaped

• Moderately sensitive taster

• The fungiform papillae on this tongue are larger and more rounded than those of a mildly sensitive taster

• Highly sensitive taster

• This tongue is covered with fungiform papillae.

• Note that this tongue does not have any blue areas like those in the other tongues

Taste Changes With Age

Map shows the prevalence of the ability to taste a prop The darker the area in this map the higher the percentage of the native population of the area who can taste PTC

Over 85% in the darkest areas, and as low as 5% in the lightest.

The Geography of Taste

Taste Smell and Reasoning• Mildly sensitive tasters tend rely more on logical reasoning to

arrive at decisions than do other tasters

• Moderately sensitive tasters are more likely to "play things by ear" and improvise

• Highly sensitive tasters tend to spend time mulling things over, often "sleeping" on a problem if it is complex

• Strong tasters of PROP, and people who sense coolness when they taste mints, say :– The crackle of flames of a wood fire stimulate my imagination– My thoughts often don't occur as words but as visual images– I like to watch cloud shapes change in the sky– I can be deeply moved by a sunset.

Food Stimulates all our senses

• We also need to react emotionally •Do we like it? is it poison? Should we enjoy it or spit it out?• Flavor messages go to the emotional centers

We have to know what we are eating

Sensory Dominance

• Many studies published over the last 75 years have shown that visual cues (especially those concerned with a food or drink’s colour) can have a profound effect on both the sensory-discriminative and hedonic aspects of multisensory flavour perception

The pleasure of food is critically dependent on all sensory attributes being right, and so food can, for instance, shock us simply by serving it

at the wrong temperature, or if it has an inappropriate colour

Factors That Affect Food Perception

• Sight: the visual attributes of the stimulus will likely evoke expectations

• Taste: the tongue, palate, soft palate, and areas in the upper throat detect sensations

• Smell: the receptors of the olfactory system detect molecules in the air

• Chemesthisis: mediates information about irritants through nerve endings

• Texture: Texture plays a major role in our recognition of foods

• Temperature: we have expectations for the serving temperature for most foods and beverages

• Hearing: this can set expectations, effect how we experience textures

Sight

Sound

Texture

Temperature

Sensory Incongruity

• The deliberate mismatching of the sensory attributes of a dish or food product

• Sensory incongruity can elicit negative as well as positive responses

• Sensory incongruity is more challenging

Sensory Incongruity

• There is always a possibility that when the ‘moment of truth’ comes, and any one (or more) of the other sensory properties of the product do not match up to the expectations that have been created by one of the other senses

• The likely reaction of a diner to such an experience depends on

– The nature of the sensory incongruity involved – Whether the incongruity is hidden or visible– The situation or context in which the incongruity is experienced– The person who happens to be experiencing it

Adaption and Suppression

• Adaptation: When subject to a constant stimulus, the senses become less responsive

• Mixture Suppression: The phenomenon that individual taste and smell characteristics are perceived as less intense in mixtures than alone

Environment

Presentation and Display

A Little Research.…

What flavour would you expect these drinks to be?