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taste perception

This shows a woman in VR goggles and food.

·February 28, 2025·5 min read

New Tech Lets You Taste Digital Food

Scientists have developed e-Taste, a novel technology that digitally replicates taste in virtual environments. Using chemical sensors and wireless dispensers, the system captures and transmits taste data remotely, enabling users to experience sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami flavors.

This shows a woman eating in a small cell.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 18, 2024·4 min read

Confined Spaces Change How We Smell and Experience Food

Researchers found that confined environments, like the International Space Station, alter the way people perceive food aromas, with emotions significantly coloring their responses. Using virtual reality to simulate space conditions, participants reported stronger smells for most aromas, except lemongrass, compared to a microgravity posture.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 30, 2024·7 min read

Sour Power: Why Some Adults Love Intense Sourness

Researchers uncovered that approximately one in eight adults enjoys intensely sour flavors, challenging the common belief that adults generally dislike sourness. This international study utilized participants from the U.S. and Italy to explore the liking patterns of sourness in adults.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 10, 2024·5 min read

How the Brain Perceives Bitter Taste

A new study sheds light on how we perceive bitter tastes, revealing the detailed structure of the TAS2R14 bitter taste receptor for the first time. By pinpointing where bitter substances bind to TAS2R14 and understanding its activation mechanism, scientists have laid the groundwork for developing treatments that could regulate taste receptors to address conditions like obesity and diabetes.

This shows a glass of wine and computer code.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 1, 2023·5 min read

Taste-Driven AI Algorithms Enhance Wine Selections

Wine apps like Vivino and Hello Vino are utilizing AI algorithms to help wine enthusiasts select the perfect bottle. Researchers have taken it a step further by incorporating people's flavor impressions into the algorithms.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 5, 2023·7 min read

A New Flavor Frontier: Is Ammonium Our Sixth Basic Taste?

The tongue’s response to ammonium chloride, a component in some candies, may indicate a sixth basic taste. The study illuminated that OTOP1, a protein receptor that signals sour taste, also responds notably to ammonium chloride.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·August 24, 2023·5 min read

The Bitter Truth: Illness, Inflammation, and the Genetic Code of Taste

A new study delves into the relationship between taste perception and immune function, focusing on the bitter taste experienced during illness. The study identified that inflammation elevates aversion to bitter tastes, a change stemming from the taste buds.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 10, 2023·3 min read

Neurological Symphony of Taste: Unraveling the Brain’s Flavor Pathways

Researchers are delving into the intricacies of taste perception and its impact on the brain. Their goal is to understand how the brain processes sensations like the sweet pleasure of a dessert or the fiery burn of a hot pepper. The team found that taste and touch sensations can stimulate the same neurons in the midbrain. This intriguing overlap hints at the brain's 'multitasking' abilities, where limited cells perform multiple functions. By exploring the interplay between taste and touch, and the emotional responses they elicit, this five-year project hopes to shed light on fundamental principles of brain organization, potentially leading to health and disease insights.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·March 26, 2023·4 min read

How Salt Can Taste Sweet

Researchers have identified new mechanisms of taste perception. The study reports chloride ion channels bind to sweet taste receptors to evoke taste sensation.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·January 23, 2023·5 min read

Chicory, Surrogate and Roasted Coffee Provide New Insights Into Mechanisms of Taste Perception

The bitter compounds of chicory exhibit a receptor activation profile that overlaps with roasted coffee compounds, resulting in a similar taste profile. However, the impact on three taste receptors differs between the substances.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 23, 2022·4 min read

Picky Eaters Are Put Off by Food Depending on Plateware Color

The color of the plate food is served on influences taste perception, a new study reports.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 30, 2022·6 min read

Suffering From a Smell Disorder? Eat Chili, Menthol and Rapeseed Oil

Olfactory dysfunction can have both physical and social consequences, in addition to influencing food intake and weight. Researchers say foods that stimulate other chemical senses when consumed, such as chili or menthol, can improve life quality for those with olfactory dysfunction.