Eating is more than just bringing a bite to your mouth, chewing, and swallowing. What we see, smell, hear, and feel while eating has a significant impact on our enjoyment of food.
A group of psychology undergraduates recently published a review of research in the Canadian Journal of Undergraduate Research investigating how each of our senses shape our experience of food.
“Everybody eats,” says Ellen Imamura, the first author of the paper and now a U of T graduate. “Even if it’s just a small thing that makes that experience a little bit more enjoyable, it can have a huge impact.”
“It’s something we do every single day, multiple times a day, so that can really add up.”
“Beyond taste: Multisensory aspects to food enjoyment” was written by Imamura, Jenny Liu, Tehnish Paramiswaran, Yining Zhou, Hyungjin Cheon, Nayeon Song, Yixin Guo, Seunghyun Yoo, Yuchen Ke, and Prof. Dirk Bernhardt-Walther.
The paper began as a final project in Prof. Bernhardt-Walther’s fourth-year seminar course, “The Neuroscience of Aesthetics.” It was further developed by Imamura, Liu, and Paramiswaran and readied for publishing after the course’s conclusion with Bernhardt-Walther’s guidance.
To start, the authors detail how smell influences what we taste. For instance, one study finds that the smell of vanilla amplifies the perceived sweetness of the artificial sweetener aspartame, while the smell of soy sauce intensifies the perceived saltiness of a solution. This is what scientists call the “amplification effect.” They note that both taste and smell are processed in our brain’s orbitofrontal cortex, where neurons responding to odours are influenced by associations we have previously made through taste.
Do you find it hard to enjoy a nice dinner in a loud restaurant? It’s not just you. Research has found that we tend to enjoy our food less in loud environments. In one study, coffee-drinkers found their brew to taste less bitter and less intense when sound levels were high. Another found that loud sounds may lower taste intensity because of its distracting effects. Interestingly though, loud sounds have also been shown to enhance umami flavours.
What we see is important too, and not just in the food itself. This is, at least in part, due to the associations we make between colours and flavours. One study observed that bitter chocolate wrapped in black is thought to be more bitter than the same chocolate wrapped in pink.
The authors explain that these experiences don’t happen in isolation, so different combinations of sensations interact to result in different effects. In one study, participants rated the smell of coloured drinks as more intense than the smell of colourless ones. Another found that participants consistently liked wine most when they tasted it under red lighting and alongside “sweet” music.
“Every sense contributes to creating cohesive expectations, intensifying flavours, and enhancing the dining experience,” the authors conclude.
They argue that this research can help promote healthier relationships with food and boost our overall quality of life—especially among those who have strict dietary needs, taste deficiencies, or psychological challenges around eating.
Why publish?
Prof. Bernhardt-Walther encourages other undergraduates to try to publish their own research as there is much to be learned through the submission, peer-review, and editing process. It is also an opportunity to contribute your knowledge to the field. Another group of students in the same course published “Aesthetic processing in neurodiverse populations” in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.
He recommends first connecting with a faculty member who can help you through the process, and getting involved in a lab that conducts research in an area you are interested in.
“I’m really happy for the students—it’s a great accomplishment for them,” says Bernhardt-Walther. “I think they were amazed that this is something that could have come out of a class.”
While Imamura recognizes that getting her group’s research published required extra time and effort—at one point having to restructure much of the paper—she agrees that it was a valuable learning experience.
“It’s not so difficult that it’s impossible to do as an undergrad, and it’s very much worth the effort at the end of the day.”