Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on July 24, 2009
Chemical Senses 2009 34(8):645-651; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjp045
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Impact of Novel Olfactory Stimuli at Supra and Subthreshold Concentrations on the Perceived Sweetness of Sucrose after Associative Learning
Department of Food Consumer Interaction, Nestlé Research Center, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, PO Box 44, CH-1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland
Correspondence to be sent to: David Labbe, Department of Food Consumer Interaction, Nestlé Research Center, PO Box 44, CH-1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland. e-mail: david.labbe{at}rdls.nestle.com
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Abstract |
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The impact of coexposure to a novel olfactory stimulation in combination with sweet taste on the construction of perceptual interaction was studied. The first objective was to explore whether a new flavoring perceived retronasally at a subthreshold concentration could enhance the perceived sweetness after a coexposure with sucrose using an approach encouraging associative learning. After validating the associative learning by showing an increase of the perceived sweetness by the flavoring at a suprathreshold concentration, we showed that the flavoring stimulation did not impact the perceived sweetness when presented at a subthreshold concentration. The second objective was to validate the absence of associative learning when subjects were exposed to the sucrose flavored solution in a context of coexposure akin to sensory profiling training. As expected, we confirmed that coexposure following sensory profiling training did not promote associative learning, probably because this approach encouraged subjects to consider the olfactory and sweet taste combination as a set of distinct qualities. The potential role of neural integration processes in these results was discussed.
Key words: associative learning, neural processes, olfaction, subthreshold, taste
Accepted 2 July 2009