No abstract

Electromyography was used as a noninvasive and unobtrusive technique to characterise chewing patterns for a range of foods. Differences between subjects for a variety of aspects of chewing sequence are recorded for a range of foods (carrot, apple, roast pork, salami, biscuit and toast). Identifiable subgroups of subjects differing in chewing behaviour existed within the random sample of 52 dentate subjects. The five subgroups accounted for 52%, 21%, 11%, 10% and 6% of the sample population. Major discriminating factors between the behavioural groups lie in their chewing time and the muscle work rate during chewing. Sensory ratings for firmness and rubberiness of model foods differed significantly between the subjects exhibiting different chewing behaviours. Chewing behaviour may influence consumers’ perceptions about the texture of a food.

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We examine how the perceived contrast of dynamic noise images depends upon temporal frequency (TF) and mean luminance. A novel stepwise suprathreshold matching paradigm shows that both threshold and suprathreshold contrast sensitivity functions may be described by an inverted-U shape as a function of TF. The shape and the peak TF of the tuning function vary with the conditions under which it is measured. Spatiotemporal vision is weakly band-pass at low luminance levels (0.8 cd/m(2)) but becomes more strongly band-pass at high luminances (40-400 cd/m(2)). The peak temporal frequencies of the band-pass functions increase with the mean luminance and contrast of the test signals. As a function of increasing image contrast, our results demonstrate that the visual system broadens the spatiotemporal bandwidth of its signal detection mechanisms, especially at high mean luminances. Our results are shown to be consistent with an adaptable signal transmission system in which early luminance-dependent gain control mechanisms, in combination with on-line estimates of contrast via the autocorrelation function lead to an adaptive enhancement of spatiotemporal vision at high temporal frequencies.

Foods containing particles in a matrix were modelled by setting glass spheres, varying in size and surface chemistry, and oil droplets in heat‐denatured whey protein gels. Composites containing particles with hydrophilic surfaces were much stronger in compression, the strength being dependent on particle surface area, than those with hydrophobia surfaces. The relationship between strength and particle size was compared with existing rheological and composite theories. SEM examination of fracture surfaces, resulting from compression, showed that particles with an hydrophilic surface were an integral part of the composite, failure occurring within the protein matrix. Gels made from particles with an hydrophobic surface fractured adjacent to the particle surface, indicating little or no interaction between particle and matrix.

No abstract

We investigate the form and time course of motion adaptation, comparing the psychophysical performance of human subjects with existing electrophysiological data on insect vision. In the H1 neuron of the fly, the response to a maintained motion stimulus is known to decrease over time while sensitivity to variations in speed around the maintained level increases. This behaviour can be modelled by modifying a correlation-based motion detector to include adaptable temporal filters (Fig. 1). We find that the form and time course of sensitivity changes in human motion perception are comparable to fly vision. We propose that, in both cases, adaptation serves to improve the transmission of novel motion information along the visual pathways at the expense of maintaining an accurate representation of the unchanging components of the stimulus.

There are marked similarities in the adaptation to motion observed in wide-field directional neurons found in the mammalian nucleus of the optic tract and cells in the insect lobula plate. However, while the form and time scale of adaptation is comparable in the two systems, there is a difference in the directional properties of the effect. A model based on the Reichardt detector is proposed to describe adaptation in mammals and insects, with only minor modifications required to account for the differences in directionality. Temporal-frequency response functions of the neurons and the model are shifted laterally and compressed by motion adaptation. The lateral shift enhances dynamic range and differential motion sensitivity. The compression is not caused by fatigue, but is an intrinsic property of the adaptive process resulting from interdependence of temporal-frequency tuning and gain in the temporal filters of the motion detectors.