How we perceive flavors

Studies almost always analyze what our mind does when we see something or when we hear, but they usually forget what happens with taste and flavor. What happens when we put a fruit, a dessert or a snack in our mouth? It is also good to know that There is something called “multisensory perception”, that is, when more than one sense is involved in a sensation. So, for example, it is known that people with glasses hear better, even though it may seem like it has nothing to do with it.

Perception is dominated by sight. Scientists have shown that vision can be combined with the other senses depending on the stimuli it perceives, since if they are captured individually they are weak or ineffective. If instead the eyes appear on the scene, the stimuli give rise to more intense or multisensory experiences.

This helps explain why food or drink has a certain flavor and also why a taste that is pleasant to one person is not pleasant to another, even if they are from the same family or live together. The perception of flavor interests many. In the case of philosophers, lovers of knowledge want to find out if Taste must be considered separately or together with the other senses.

Most of us (if not all) have a hard time distinguishing between flavors and smells. That is why When we have a cold and our nose is stuffy, we cannot appreciate the taste of food. that we ingest. The reason for such confusion may then reflect that there is a kind of synesthesia between both senses.

At the same time, The multisensory effect would be linked to personal experience, on the one hand, and culture, on the other. If you eat an almond first and then a little sugar, the flavor of the nut is enhanced. For this to happen, the test participants must be people who were born in a country with a strong tradition of combining both ingredients, such as in Europe, due to marzipan or chocolate with almonds.

If the same thing happens to a person who was born in Japan, they will immediately associate almonds with the salty flavor, because many dishes are used by mixing both ingredients, not with sugar. The brain then knows how to combine flavors and smells, taking into account which foods are or were part of our diet.

Something also interesting to highlight is what researchers call the “ventriloquist effect.” The doll “speaks” by moving its mouth although it is actually a person who handles it, although we cannot realize it. This can help us understand a little better why we perceive flavors in the mouth and not in the nose, which is where the perception of taste originally originates.

The ventriloquist effect is already revolutionizing gastronomy. For example, the menu at Heston Blumenthal restaurant offers an egg and bacon ice cream. It seems a little strange because we always associate ice cream with sweets, but it is a very interesting experiment and test.

The flavors of both ingredients are in the same ball and combined in the mouth, so you couldn’t distinguish which was which. But everything changes when the customer eats a piece of crispy fried bread. In reality, this piece does not change the flavor of the dish, but it does make you realize what the two flavors of the ice cream are.

So, the flavor of the bacon suffers a ventriloquist effect, since the taste remains inside the crusty bread. For its part, the egg flavor is perceived later, as it merges with the soft texture of the ice cream.