ReviewThe multisensory perception of flavor
Introduction
One important reason for the rapid growth of research interest on the topic of flavor perception in recent years (e.g., see Verhagen, 2007, Verhagen and Engelen, 2006, for a recent review) stems from the light that gaining a better understanding of how the multisensory integration taking place in the context of food perception might shed on theories of multisensory integration in general (e.g., Simons & Noble, 2003). On the other hand, it is also widely believed that the study of the multisensory processes involved in flavor perception will have a number of important consequences for the food and beverage industries, such as, for example, a better understanding of the processes used by people to assess the acceptability and flavor of new products (e.g., Blake, 2004, Gilbert and Firestein, 2002, Shepherd, 2006, Stillman, 2002).
One robust finding to have emerged from recent psychophysical research on flavor perception is that odors can elicit changes in the perceived sweetness (i.e., taste) of foodstuffs (e.g., Stevenson, Prescott, & Boakes, 1999). Such results have led Stevenson and Boakes, 2004, Stevenson and Tomiczek, 2007 to suggest that odors can induce a synesthetic experience of taste that is common to all. Alternatively, however, it has also been argued that such ubiquitous interactions between smells and tastes may instead reflect the existence of an additional (i.e., separate) flavor sense (e.g., Abdi, 2002, McBurney, 1986, Prescott, 1999). Here, we review the published literature on multisensory interactions between taste, smell, and the trigeminal system in order to argue that flavor perception, rather than reflecting a kind of synesthetic experience between the senses of taste and smell, should be used as the term for the combinations of taste, smell, the trigeminal system, touch, and so on, that we perceive when tasting food. More precisely, following on from ecological theories of perception, such as the one proposed by Gibson (1966), flavor will hereby be defined as a perceptual modality. That is, we will argue that the unification of sensory impressions enabled by the act of eating does not occur at the level of sensation, but rather at the level of perception.
Section snippets
Examples of perceptual interactions between different components of flavor
One everyday example that highlights a widespread confusion between the senses of taste and smell is the fact that people commonly report losing their sense of taste when their nose is blocked. Similar effects can be experienced simply by pinching one’s nose and trying to guess what someone else has given us to eat (e.g., apple or onion; e.g., see Tichener, 1909; see also Ross, 2001, pp. 501–502). Indeed, it has been reported that most of what people commonly think of as the taste of foodstuffs
The duality of the olfactory system
In this section, we review the specificities of the olfactory system that further support the view of flavor as a distinct perceptual system. According to their physiological definitions, taste has the status of a minor sense, as the channel of only a limited number of sensations: Sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami (e.g., Chandrashekar et al., 2006, Smith and Margolskee, 2006, although see Schiffman, 2000, for the view that that the range of tastes is more extensive than
Flavor and the trigeminal system
The trigeminal system provides information concerning chemical irritation and nociception, as well as information concerning the temperature, texture, and consistency of food (e.g., Delwiche, 2004); and all of these sources of information influence the overall perception of flavor that we experience. In this review, we have outlined a number of interactions between taste and smell, and shall mention here the influence of the tactile and trigeminal systems on the perception of taste and smell.
Questioning the taxonomy of our senses
It seems possible that the multisensory nature of human flavor perception reflects the fact that the taxonomy of the human senses used by science does not necessarily correspond to the categories used by ordinary people to describe the senses of taste and smell. This was the hypothesis put forward by Gibson (1966, see chapter VIII, ‘Tasting and smelling as perceptual systems’). He argued that taste should be considered in a broad sense (that we will refer to as flavor perception) as a
Conclusions
In this article, we have reviewed the literature on the multisensory interactions that take place between taste, smell, and the trigeminal system in order to determine the extent to which flavor can be defined as a perceptual system. Updating the early work of Gibson (1966) in the light of current cognitive neuroscientific findings, we propose that flavor perception should be used as a term to describe the combinations of taste, smell, the trigeminal system, and touch, to which we add visual
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