Department of Food Science and Technology, 100 Wiegand Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
Chem Senses. 2011 Mar;36(3):283-9. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjq125. Epub 2010 Nov 23.
The current study took a first step toward elucidating the sensory input that drives retronasal odor referral to the mouth. In 2 experiments, subjects performed odor localization tasks under various oral-nasal stimulation conditions that allowed us to assess the effects of direction of airflow, taste, and tactile stimulation on retronasal odor referral. Subjects reported the locations of perceived odors when food odorants were inhaled through the mouth alone or in the presence of water or various tastants in the mouth. The results indicated that when perceived alone, vanilla and soy sauce odor were localized 54.7%: 26.4%: 18.9% and 60.0%: 21.7%: 18.3% in the nose, oral cavity, and on the tongue, respectively. The localization of odors alone was not significantly different from when water was presented simultaneously in the mouth, indicating that tactile stimulation itself is not sufficient to enhance odor referral. However, the presence of sucrose, but not other tastes, significantly increased localization of vanilla to the tongue. Likewise, only NaCl significantly augmented referral of soy sauce odor to the tongue. These data indicate that referral of retronasal odors to the mouth can occur in the absence of a either taste or touch but that referral to the tongue depends strongly on the presence of a congruent taste.
本研究首次阐明了驱动鼻后嗅觉反馈到口腔的感觉输入。在 2 项实验中，受试者在各种口鼻刺激条件下进行嗅觉定位任务，使我们能够评估气流方向、味觉和触觉刺激对鼻后嗅觉反馈的影响。当受试者仅通过口腔吸入食物气味剂或在口腔中存在水或各种味觉剂时，报告感知到的气味的位置。结果表明，当单独感知时，香草和酱油气味分别定位于鼻子、口腔和舌头上的 54.7%:26.4%:18.9%和 60.0%:21.7%:18.3%。单独感知气味的定位与同时在口腔中呈现水时没有显著差异，表明触觉刺激本身不足以增强嗅觉反馈。然而，蔗糖的存在，而不是其他味道，显著增加了香草定位到舌头上。同样，只有 NaCl 显著增加了酱油气味反馈到舌头上的数量。这些数据表明，鼻后嗅觉反馈到口腔可以在没有味觉或触觉的情况下发生，但反馈到舌头上强烈依赖于存在一致的味觉。
