Program in Neuroscience, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2010 Feb;13(2):158-9. doi: 10.1038/nn.2463. Epub 2009 Dec 20.
As anyone who has suffered through a head cold knows, food eaten when the olfactory system is impaired tastes 'wrong', an experience that leads many to conclude that taste stimuli are processed normally only when the olfactory system is unimpaired. Evidence that the taste system influences olfactory perception, however, has been vanishingly rare. We found just such an influence; if taste cortex was inactivated when an odor was first presented, later presentations were properly appreciated only if taste cortex was again inactivated.
正如所有经历过头伤风的人都知道的那样，当嗅觉系统受损时，所吃的食物尝起来味道“不对”，这种体验让许多人得出结论，只有在嗅觉系统未受损的情况下，味觉刺激才能正常处理。然而，味觉系统影响嗅觉感知的证据却极为罕见。我们发现了这样一种影响；如果在呈现气味时使味觉皮层失活，那么只有再次使味觉皮层失活，之后呈现的气味才能被正确感知。
