Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Department of Psychology, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China.
Biol Psychol. 2024 Jul;190:108821. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108821. Epub 2024 May 22.
Numerous studies have demonstrated the impact of flavor cues on visual search, yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In this experiment, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether, and if so, how flavor information could lead to attentional capture by, and suppression of, flavor-associated colors. The participants were asked to taste certain flavored beverages and subsequently complete a shape-based visual search task, while their neural activities were simultaneously recorded. The behavioral results revealed that the participants made slower responses when a distractor in the flavor-associated color (DFAC) was present, suggesting an attentional bias toward the flavor-associated color. The ERP results revealed that the N2pc was detected if the target and the DFAC were shown in the same visual field (e.g. both target and DFCA on the right side of the screen), when the pairings between flavor cues and target colors were incongruent. However, the N2pc was not observed if the target and the DFAC were shown in the opposite visual fields (e.g. target on the right and DFCA on the left side of the screen) for the incongruent color-flavor pairings. Moreover, the distractor positivity (Pd) was observed if the target and the DFAC were shown in the opposite visual field for the congruent color-flavor pairings. These results suggest that both attentional capture and suppression are involved in the influence of flavor information on visual search. Collectively, these findings provide initial electrophysiological evidence on the mechanisms of the crossmodal influence of flavor cues on visual search.
许多研究已经证明了味道线索对视觉搜索的影响，但潜在的机制仍然难以捉摸。在这个实验中，我们使用事件相关电位（ERPs）来检查味道信息是否以及如何导致对与味道相关的颜色的注意捕获和抑制。要求参与者品尝某些调味饮料，然后完成基于形状的视觉搜索任务，同时记录他们的神经活动。行为结果表明，当与味道相关的颜色（DFAC）中有分心物时，参与者的反应速度较慢，这表明他们对与味道相关的颜色存在注意偏向。ERP 结果表明，如果目标和 DFAC 出现在同一视野中（例如，屏幕右侧的目标和 DFCA），并且味道线索和目标颜色之间的配对不一致，则会检测到 N2pc。然而，如果目标和 DFAC 出现在相反的视野中（例如，屏幕右侧的目标和左侧的 DFCA），则对于不一致的颜色-味道配对，不会观察到 N2pc。此外，如果目标和 DFAC 出现在一致的颜色-味道配对的相反视野中，则会观察到分心正波（Pd）。这些结果表明，在味道信息对视觉搜索的影响中，既涉及注意捕获，也涉及注意抑制。总的来说，这些发现为味道线索对视觉搜索的跨模态影响的机制提供了初步的电生理证据。
