Abstract
Before foods or fluids can affect behavior, they must be sensed. Olfaction, touch, temperature, and pain (e.g., chili peppers) are all sensations associated with food. Taste appears to be tuned to nutrients. Sugars are sweet, NaCl is salty, and many poisons are bitter. Olfaction, on the other hand, appears to be organized to identify foods holistically (e.g., bacon, pizza, peanut butter, etc.) rather than to identify the nutrients within them. The roles of the other senses in food perception are less clear. Some differences in the ability to taste and smell are genetic, age changes taste and smell differentially (age affects smell much more than taste), and pathology, disease, and treatments for disease may affect taste and smell. Species differences in taste and smell place limitations on animal models. Sensory studies have an important role in studies of eating behavior.
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This research was supported by & grant from the National Institutes of Health (DC 283).
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Bartoshuk, L.M. Sensory factors in eating behavior. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 29, 250–255 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342692
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342692