MadSci Network: General Biology
Query:

Re: Does sight affect our taste?.

Date: Tue Nov 27 14:22:01 2001
Posted By: Brenda Hefti, Grad student, Neuroscience Pgm/Physiology Dept
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 1005607239.Gb
Message:

You were right to guess that sight affects taste.  We all have some 
experience with this in our daily lives.  When you eat something that looks 
"funny", you're likely to think that it tastes funny, too.  Once when I was 
a kid I ate way too many Pez candies and I became quite ill.  Now, every 
time I see a Pez dispenser, my stomach still goes queasy.  And a famous 
chef once said "We taste first with our eyes."  That's one reason why fancy 
restaurants spend so much time on how their food looks - if it looks great, 
people will be predisposed to think it tastes great.

Scientists have addressed this question with experiments, too.  I'm not 
going to mention psychology, because those experiments don't tell us much 
beyond what we've already guessed, but I'll list some references at the 
end.  There are a number of experiments in which scientists recorded the 
brain activity in an area called the substantia innominata.  They found 
that some nerve cells there respond to the sight of food, some respond to 
the taste of food, and still others respond to both the sight and taste of 
food.  They also did an experiment where they measured how strongly a 
neuron responded to one type of food.  Then they let the monkey eat as much 
of that food as it wanted.  When they recorded again from that same nerve 
cell, they found that it didn't respond as strongly to that food, but it 
still responded to other foods.  This suggests that there are specific 
pathways in your brain that tell you whether you want to eat a particular 
food, based just on seeing that food.

Some scientific articles are below, if you're interested.  Some will be 
more difficult to read than others, but a science teacher at your school 
can help you with them.  You can find these in a university library.

Influence of color on odor identification and liking ratings. By Zellner 
DA, Bartoli AM, Eckard R. Am J Psychol 1991 Winter;104(4):547-61

Sensory-specific satiety: food-specific reduction in responsiveness of 
ventral forebrain neurons after feeding in the monkey.  By Rolls ET, Murzi 
E, Yaxley S, Thorpe SJ, Simpson SJ. Brain Res 1986 Mar 12;368(1):79-86

Color preference and food choice among children. By Walsh LM, Toma RB, 
Tuveson RV, Sondhi L. J Psychol 1990 Nov;124(6):645-53

Please contact me if you have any more questions!

Brenda



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