Tricking Your Taste Buds

Credit: Greg Dixon The primary taste cortex area of the brain can be tricked depending on expectations of what something will taste like.

The brain scan results told the same story. Normally, the more bitter a taste, the larger the response in the primary taste cortex. Indeed, when subjects were given a "very bitter" cue followed by a "very bitter" taste, their brains were highly activated. But when the subjects were given the same "very bitter" taste with a cue that made them think it would taste better, the primary taste cortex gave a much lower response. As Nitschke explains, "their brains just didn't register how awful that taste was."

These results show that taste is a subjective experience that depends on context. And though this "suggestibility effect" has been studied a great deal in other senses like vision, sound, and pain, Nitschke's study is the first to find it in taste.

This work has also brought into question the size of the brain's taste region. In previous work on Old World monkeys, the primary taste cortex was confined to a very small area deep within the brain. "So we were really surprised," Nitschke says, "because what we saw here was this huge area of activation". This shows that the primary taste cortex in humans is larger and more extensive than it is in monkeys.

Neuroscientist Dana Small of Yale University says the study is solid and interesting, and demonstrates the power of belief over sensory experience. But Small says parents have long known about the phenomena. "My mother used to try to get me to eat peas by calling them pea candies," she recalls, "and it worked - at least for awhile."

For more information:

Science Daily - Great (Taste) Expectations: Study Shows Brain Anticipates Taste, Shifts Gears
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060222092622.htm

Nitschke Laboratory
http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/nitschkelab/home.htm