Objective: How much do the sensory properties of food influence the way people select their food and how much they eat? The objective of this paper is to review results from studies investigating the link between the sensory perception of food and human appetite regulation. Content of the review: The influence of palatability on appetite and food intake in humans has been investigated in several studies. All reviewed studies have shown increased intake as palatability increased, whereas assessments of the effect of palatability using measures of subjective appetite sensations have shown diverging results, for example, subjects either feel more hungry and less full after a palatable meal compared to a less palatable meal, or they feel the opposite, or there is no difference. Whether palatability has an effect on appetite in the period following consumption of a test meal is unclear. Several studies have investigated which sensory properties of food are involved in sensory-specific satiety. Taste, smell, texture and appearance-specific satieties have been identified, whereas studies on the role of macronutrients and the energy content of the food in sensory-specific satiety have given equivocal results. Different studies have shown that macronutrients and energy content play a role in sensory-specific satiety or that macronutrients and energy content are not a factor in sensory-specific satiety. Sensory-specific satiety may have an important influence on the amount of food eaten. Studies have shown that increasing the food variety can increase food and energy intake and in the short to medium term alter energy balance. Further knowledge about the importance of flavour in appetite regulation is needed, for example, which flavour combinations improve satiety most, the possible connection between flavour intensity and satiety, the effect of persistence of chemesthetic sensation on palatability and satiety, and to what extent genetic variation in taste sensitivity and perception influences dietary habits and weight control.

Content of total and individual glucosinolates were determined in, `Marathon' broccoli florets (Brassica olerucea L. var. italica stored 7 days at 10C under air, 0.5% O2, 0.5% O2 + 20% CO2 or 20% CO2 atmosphere, followed by transfer to air for 2 days. `Marathon' broccoli contained glucoraphanin, glucobrassicin, neoglucobrassicin, glucoiberin, 4-methoxyglucobrassicin, progoitrin, glucoalyssin, and gluconasturtiin. The methylssulfinylalkylglucosinolates (glucoiberin and glucoraphanin) and the indol-3-ylmethylglucosinolates (glucobrassicin, neoglucobrassicin and 4-methoxyglucobrassicin) accounted for 78% and 20% of the total content, respectively, in freshly harvested broccoli. CA treatment and storage time had no significant effect on the relative content of these two groups of glucosinolates. Freshly harvested broccoli contained 47 μmol glucosinolate/g dry weight. The total glucosinolate content increased 42% and 21% during 7 days storage under air and 0.5% O2 + 20% CO2, respectively, as compared to freshly harvested broccoli, and decreased 15% in broccoli stored under 20% CO2. Treatment with 20% CO2 in the absence of 0, resulted in visible CO, injury and water soaking of the tissue. Aeration had no significant effect on total glucosinolate content but reduced the glucobrassicin content 35% in broccoli stored 7 days under 0.5% O2 + 20% CO2 or 20% CO2 atmosphere. In contrast, the 4-methoxyglucobrassicin content increased during storage under low O2 atmosphere and increased further after transfer to air.

Working memory for odors, which has received almost no attention in the literature, was investigated in two experiments. We show that performance in a 2-back task with odor stimuli is well above chance. This is true not only for highly familiar odors, as has been shown by Dade, Zatorre, Evans, and Jones-Gotman, NeuroImage, 14, 650-660, (2001), but also for unfamiliar ones that are notoriously difficult to name. We can conclude that information about an olfactory stimulus can be retained in the short term and can continuously be updated for comparison with new olfactory probes along the lines of a functional odor working memory. However, the performance in the working memory task is highly dependent on participants' verbalization of the odor. In addition, results indicated that odor working memory performance is dependent on the ability to discriminate among the odor stimuli (Experiment 2). The results are discussed in relation to recent ideas of a separate olfactory working memory slave system.

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Our senses have developed as an answer to the world we live in (Gibson, 1966) and so have the forms of memory that accompany them. All senses serve different purposes and do so in different ways. In vision, where orientation and object recognition are important, memory is strongly linked to identification. In olfaction, the guardian of vital functions such as breathing and food ingestion, perhaps the most important (and least noticed and researched) role of odor memory is to help us not to notice the well-known odors or flavors in our everyday surroundings, but to react immediately to the unexpected ones. At the same time it provides us with a feeling of safety when our expectancies are met. All this happens without any smelling intention or conscious knowledge of our expectations. Identification by odor naming is not involved in this and people are notoriously bad at it. Odors are usually best identified via the episodic memory of the situation in which they once occurred. Spontaneous conscious odor perception normally only occurs in situations where attention is demanded, either because the inhaled air or the food smell is particularly good or particularly bad and people search for its source or because people want to actively enjoy the healthiness and pleasantness of their surroundings or food. Odor memory is concerned with novelty detection rather than with recollection of odors. In this paper, these points are illustrated with experimental results and their consequences for doing ecologically valid odor memory research are drawn. Furthermore, suggestions for ecologically valid research on everyday odor memory and some illustrative examples are given.

Total mercury (THg), methylmercury (MeHg) and stable isotopes of nitrogen (delta(15)N) and carbon (delta(13)C) were measured in three invertebrate, five fish, three seabird and three marine mammal species of central West Greenland to investigate trophic transfer of mercury in this Arctic marine food web. The food web magnification factor (FWMF) estimated as the slope of the regression between the natural logarithm of THg or MeHg concentrations (mg kg(-1) dw) and tissue delta(15)N ( per thousand) was estimated to 0.183 (SE = 0.052) for THg and 0.339 (SE = 0.075) for MeHg. The FWMFs were not only comparable with those reported for other Arctic marine food webs but also with quite different food webs such as freshwater lakes in the sub-Arctic, East Africa and Papua New Guinea. This suggests similar mechanisms of mercury assimilation and isotopic (delta(15)N) discrimination among a broad range of aquatic taxa and underlines the possibility of broad ecosystem comparisons using the combined contaminant and stable isotope approach.