A crossmodal role for audition in taste perception.

Abstract

Our sense of taste can be influenced by our other senses, with several groups having explored the effects of olfactory, visual, or tactile stimulation on what we perceive as taste. Research into multisensory, or crossmodal perception has rarely linked our sense of taste with that of audition. In our study, 48 participants in a crossover experiment sampled multiple concentrations of solutions of 5 prototypic tastants, during conditions with or without broad spectrum auditory stimulation, simulating that of airline cabin noise. Airline cabins are an unusual environment, in which food is consumed routinely under extreme noise conditions, often over 85 dB, and in which the perceived quality of food is often criticized. Participants rated the intensity of solutions representing varying concentrations of the 5 basic tastes on the general Labeled Magnitude Scale. No difference in intensity ratings was evident between the control and sound condition for salty, sour, or bitter tastes. Likewise, panelists did not perform differently during sound conditions when rating tactile, visual, or auditory stimulation, or in reaction time tests. Interestingly, sweet taste intensity was rated progressively lower, whereas the perception of umami taste was augmented during the experimental sound condition, to a progressively greater degree with increasing concentration. We postulate that this effect arises from mechanostimulation of the chorda tympani nerve, which transits directly across the tympanic membrane of the middle ear.

Wine and music (II): can you taste the music? Modulating the experience of wine through music and sound

“…Finally, here, while summarizing the influence of music on specific sensory properties, it is worth bearing in mind that should the music get too loud, the perception of sweetness may be suppressed while the perception of umami is enhanced (see [24]; see also [98]). …”

“…This too might be expected to influence our perception and appreciation of wine [22,23]. A growing body of scientific evidence also demonstrates that sounds that are too loud can lead to a crossmodal suppression of taste and alcohol perception (e.g., [24][25][26]; see [27] for a review). Finally here, one could imagine how even simply knowing that a particular piece of music had been chosen, or better still, composed, to go with a specific wine could exert a generalized uplift effect on one's multisensory tasting experience (cf.…”

“…There are a number of ways in which any correspondence (or match) between the music we are listening to, and the wine we are tasting, could occur: Suggested mechanisms include synaesthesia (which we have dismissed already, so will not spend any more time on here; see [3]), the focusing of a person's attention via the crossmodal correspondences that are present between music and wine, an emotional mediation account, and possibly also neural cross-wiring. Two other accounts that have been briefly covered already are "sensation transference" [66] and crossmodal masking [24].…”

Music from the kitchen

“…Here, think only of the loud noise (c. 85 dB) of the engines on the airplane. Such loud background noise suppresses the ability of people to taste sweetness and saltiness, but counterintuitively enhances their ability to perceive the taste of umami ( [46]; [47]). 10 The problem of loud background noise is not restricted to the air, though.…”

A Symmetric Approach Elucidates Multisensory Information Integration

“…Non-visual stimuli have been shown to enhance the excitability of low-level visual cortices within the occipital pole. Research into cross-modal perception has also linked senses other than vision, such as taste with audition [26]. Escanilla et al [27] demonstrated odor-taste convergence in the nucleus of the solitary tract of the awake, freely licking rat.…”