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Chem. Senses 26: 459-469, 2001
© Oxford University Press 2001

The Influence of Olfactory Concept on the Probability of Detecting Sub- and Peri-threshold Components in a Mixture of Odorants

Johannes H.F. Bult1, Hendrik N.J. Schifferstein2, Jacques P. Roozen1,4, Alphons G.J. Voragen1 and Jan H.A. Kroeze3,4

1 Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, 2 Department of Social Sciences, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, 3 Psychological Laboratory, Utrecht University, Utrecht and 4 Wageningen Taste and Smell Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to be sent to: Jacques Roozen, Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Biotechnion, PO Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. e-mail: jacques.roozen{at}chem.fdsci.wau.nl

The headspace of apple juice was analysed to obtain an ecologically relevant stimulus model mixture of apple volatiles. Two sets of volatiles were made up: a set of eight supra-threshold volatiles (MIX) and a set of three sub-threshold volatiles. These sets were used to test the hypothesis that sub-threshold components can change the quality of a familiar smelling mixture of odorants when added to this mixture. In order to test this hypothesis, three successive dilutions of the sub-threshold volatiles were prepared in such a way that the strongest was at the threshold concentration and the two lower concentrations were below the threshold. The detection probabilities of the sub-threshold components in a blank stimulus were compared with the detectabilities in MIX. The sub- and peri-threshold volatiles were detected no better in MIX than in a blank. On the contrary, sub- and peri-threshold volatiles were better detected alone than when added to MIX. However, when the group of subjects was split into two sub-groups, employing either a rough or a detailed concept definition of the target stimulus, respectively, the subjects with highly refined concepts were better able to detect the presence of sub-threshold volatiles in MIX than those with poorly refined stimulus concepts. The effect of stimulus concept definition occurred independently of the proportions of correct detections of sub-threshold volatiles in a blank.


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