Odor-Induced Taste Enhancement Is Specific to Naturally Occurring Temporal Order and the Respiration Phase

Abstract

Interaction between odor and taste information creates flavor perception. There are many possible determinants of the interaction between odor and taste, one of which may be the somatic sensations associated with breathing. We assumed that a smell stimulus accompanied by inhaling or exhaling enhances taste intensity if the order is congruent with natural drinking. To present an olfactory stimulus from the identical location during inhalation and exhalation, we blocked the gap between the tube presenting the olfactory stimulus and the nostril. Participants breathed and ingested the solution according to the instructions on the screen and evaluated the solution’s taste intensity. Vanilla odor enhanced the sweet taste in both retronasal and orthonasal conditions when the order of stimuli was congruent with natural drinking, but it did not do so in either condition when they were incongruent. The results suggest that breathing is a determinant of odor–taste interaction. The methods of presenting olfactory stimuli used in this study were compared and discussed in relation to those used in previous studies. Odor-induced taste enhancement depends on the time order of smell with breathing and taste congruency in natural drinking. Taste enhancement was induced by odor in both conditions by minimizing differences in odor presentation between them.

‘Tasting Imagination’: What Role Chemosensory Mental Imagery in Multisensory Flavour Perception?

“…The surprising fact that many olfactory-gustatory interactions (Spence, 2012), such as the OITE effect (Spence, 2022b), appear relatively insensitive to the route of olfactory presentation (i.e., orthonasal or retronasal; though see Amano et al, 2022, for an isolated exception) may also fit in here. That said, one important difference from the example of voluntary mental imagery that was studied by Djordjevic and colleagues (2004a), and which can be elicited in the absence of any stimuli in the 'target' modality is that the OITE would appear to require a taste stimulus (Spence, 2022a).…”

“…Somewhat surprisingly, OITE (as well as, as it happens, a number of other olfactory-gustatory interactions) appear to be unaffected by whether a given odorant happens to be experienced retronasally or orthonasally (Lawrence et al, 2009;Spence, 2012; though see Amano et al, 2022). This is surprising inasmuch as only retronasal olfaction is constitutively involved in multisensory flavour perception (see Spence et al, 2015).…”

Enhancement effect of odor and multi‐sensory superposition on sweetness

“…More recently, the results of Amano et al. (2022) similarly showed that OITE depended on the time order of smell with breathing in natural drinking, and postnasal conditions were more prominent. Blankenship et al.…”

Ortho‐ and Retronasal stimulations with specific food odours: Hedonic and familiarity ratings are related to chemosensory pleasure scale (CPS) scores

“…This led to the hypothesis that olfaction exists as a dual sensory modality 14 . Interestingly, it has recently been suggested that breathing (i.e., retronasal olfaction) is a strong determinant of odour‐taste interaction 15 and that ortho‐ and retronasal olfaction are complementary systems 16 …”

“…[11][12][13] This led to the hypothesis that olfaction exists as a dual sensory modality. 14 Interestingly, it has recently been suggested that breathing (i.e., retronasal olfaction) is a strong determinant of odour-taste interaction 15 and that ortho-and retronasal olfaction are complementary systems. 16 However, among studies that specifically investigated perceptual differences (sensitivity, intensity and identification) in olfactory perception between the two pathways, results show some discrepancies.…”