{"title":"Individual Differences in Retronasal Odor Responsiveness: Effects of Aging and Concurrent Taste","authors":"Tyler J. Flaherty, Juyun Lim","doi":"10.1007/s12078-016-9206-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Individual differences in taste sensitivity have been considered the primary chemosensory factor in studies of chemical senses/ingestive behavior. Recent findings suggest, however, that retronasal odor perception is equally important in food preference and selection and, furthermore, the presence of a congruent taste can modulate responsiveness to retronasally perceived odors. The primary objective of this study was to measure individual differences in responsiveness to food odors in the presence and absence of a congruent taste. In order to achieve this goal, we experimentally manipulated the way taste and odor stimuli are presented. We hypothesized that when measured independently, variations across subjects in responsiveness to retronasal odors are greater than those of tastes, but that these variations are effectively reduced by the presence of a congruent taste, especially for the older cohort.</p><p>Two groups of subjects (young vs. old cohorts) were asked to sample two tastants, four food odorants, and the congruent taste-odor pairs, and rate intensities for appropriate categories.</p><p>Results showed that responsiveness to odors varied greatly across individuals compared to that of tastes and further that variations in odor responsiveness were greater for old compared to young cohort. In the presence of a congruent taste, however, the variations in responsiveness to the odors were significantly reduced, in particular for the old cohort.</p><p>The current data suggest that older individuals and those with low olfactory sensitivity may not recognize the reduced sensitivity when consuming foods.</p>","PeriodicalId":516,"journal":{"name":"Chemosensory Perception","volume":"10 4","pages":"91 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2016-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/s12078-016-9206-2","citationCount":"14","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Chemosensory Perception","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12078-016-9206-2","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Neuroscience","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 14
Abstract
Individual differences in taste sensitivity have been considered the primary chemosensory factor in studies of chemical senses/ingestive behavior. Recent findings suggest, however, that retronasal odor perception is equally important in food preference and selection and, furthermore, the presence of a congruent taste can modulate responsiveness to retronasally perceived odors. The primary objective of this study was to measure individual differences in responsiveness to food odors in the presence and absence of a congruent taste. In order to achieve this goal, we experimentally manipulated the way taste and odor stimuli are presented. We hypothesized that when measured independently, variations across subjects in responsiveness to retronasal odors are greater than those of tastes, but that these variations are effectively reduced by the presence of a congruent taste, especially for the older cohort.
Two groups of subjects (young vs. old cohorts) were asked to sample two tastants, four food odorants, and the congruent taste-odor pairs, and rate intensities for appropriate categories.
Results showed that responsiveness to odors varied greatly across individuals compared to that of tastes and further that variations in odor responsiveness were greater for old compared to young cohort. In the presence of a congruent taste, however, the variations in responsiveness to the odors were significantly reduced, in particular for the old cohort.
The current data suggest that older individuals and those with low olfactory sensitivity may not recognize the reduced sensitivity when consuming foods.
期刊介绍:
Coverage in Chemosensory Perception includes animal work with implications for human phenomena and explores the following areas:
Identification of chemicals producing sensory response;
Identification of sensory response associated with chemicals;
Human in vivo response to chemical stimuli;
Human in vitro response to chemical stimuli;
Neuroimaging of chemosensory function;
Neurological processing of chemoreception;
Chemoreception mechanisms;
Psychophysics of chemoperception;
Trigeminal function;
Multisensory perception;
Contextual effect on chemoperception;
Behavioral response to chemical stimuli;
Physiological factors affecting and contributing to chemoperception;
Flavor and hedonics;
Memory and chemoperception.