Simultaneously Combined Imagery from Two Perceptions

Flavor is an experience of food from a combination of the olfactory system, where we generate the sensation of smell, and the taste system, which obtains five basic taste sensations (saltiness, sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and umami) (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2010). In addition, it has been discovered that these intersensory interactions of flavor are not merely present in smell and taste. For instance, interactions among the senses stimulated by elements such as the texture and temperature of food (Verhagen et al., 2004), the colors (Spence et al., 2010), and the sounds (e.g., the “crunching” sound when eating potato chips) (Zampini &

Spence, 2010) also matter when tasting flavor. Gibson (1966) proposed that flavor perception is enabled by savoring food at the level of perception, the instinctive sensory impression, rather than at the level of sensation, the feeling aroused by the senses. All of these interactions unveil the multimodal nature of our flavor experience (Auvray & Spence, 2008).

Thus, flavor requires numerous interactions between the senses of taste and smell in the act of tasting. In physiological definitions, taste is considered a minor sense as the channel of only a limited number of sensations: sweetness, acidity, bitterness, saltiness, and umami (Chandrashekar, Hoon, Ryba, & Zuker, 2006; Smith & Margolskee, 2001, March 1). Smell appears to constitute a “dual modality” through sniffing (orthonasal olfaction) via the nose

and eating and drinking via the mouth (Auvray & Spence, 2008). However, the two senses of smell and taste are rather neglected and primitive, not because there is a lack of interest but because they are difficult to measure reliably. Although smell (olfactory sense) and taste (gustatory sense) are distinct in their receptors, as their first sensorium for information processing is identical, they are intimately entwined (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2010). As shown in Figure 2.1, chemicals in foods are detected by the taste buds, which are construed by the gustatory sensory cells. When stimulated, these cells will send signals to the thalamus and insula, which belong to the primary taste area, making us conscious of the perception of taste. Likewise, the olfactory mucosa of the nasal cavities, which contains specialized cells, will pick up the odor molecules in the air. Odor molecules stimulate the sensory cells on the receptor organ, and initiate a neural response. Ultimately, messages about taste and smell are converged in the caudal orbital cortex with the gustatory information (sent from the thalamus) and the olfactory information (received from the olfactory bulb), thereby allowing us to detect the flavors of food (Carey, 2005). Additionally, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which is situated in the frontal lobes in the brain, is where taste and smell integrate their messages within the nervous system (Murphy & Cain, 1980).

According to the view outlined here, flavor should be defined as the unification of the senses of smell and taste when tasting food, rather than as a synesthetic experience of both senses (Auvray & Spence, 2008). Mozell et al. (1969) showed that it may be difficult for people holding their noses during tastings to identify the substance that they are drinking or eating. The reason is that food evokes volatile chemicals that reach the olfactory mucosa through the retronasal route, which is the passage that connects the oral and nasal cavities. If the nose is plugged, vapors cannot reach the olfactory receptors, thereby eliminating the

olfactory component of flavor (Goldstein & Brockmole, 2010; Murphy & Cain, 1980).

Figure 2.1 Pathways of Smell and Taste

Illustration by Lydia V. Kibiuk, Baltimore, MD; Devon Stuart, Harrisburg, PA

On the other hand, psychological studies have shown that while flavor is perceived as the unification of both taste and smell, it remains analyzable when people attend to each component separately as well. To clarify the complex interactions between taste and smell in flavor, McBurney (1986) suggested that there ought to be a distinction drawn between synthetic and analytic types of flavor perception. Analytic perception occurs when two

stimuli mixed in a solution retain their separate identities and qualities. By comparison, synthetic perception is when two stimuli that have been mixed together in a solution lose their individual qualities and are replaced by a new and distinct (third) sensation. As it turns out, according to McBurney (1986), during the experience of smell and taste, components of

a flavor do not lose their individual qualities of sensation to form a new sensation. Rather, they are combined in order to form a single percept that is an individual impression of both perceptions. It is therefore believed that the multisensory perception of flavor does not necessarily represent a synesthetic experience because the stimuli are not combined synthetically. However, this could simply reflect the unification of the qualities of taste and smell into one simple image evoked by the act of eating (Auvray & Spence, 2008).

Derived from our ability to construct gustatory imagery (i.e., thinking about the taste experience), the image construed by the unification of taste and smell can be regarded as the connecting factor between perception and language. Kobayashi et al. (2004) supposed that people’s gustatory imagery elicits frontal gyri activation in the absence of actual taste stimuli, and that this imagery is related to the retrieval of gustatory information from our long-term memories. In other words, in spite of the fact that flavor contains the instinctive and abstract senses of smell and taste, the instrumental convergence of linguistic expression seems to be embedded in our subjective and elusive experiences and memories. Moreover, the images are not novel inventions but recollections of our past embodiments. Paradis and Eeg-Olofsson (2013) likewise called the transformation of sensory perceptions into language the

“reconceptualization of perceptual feelings.” We analyze and discuss such imagery expressions found in our target data of coffee cupping practices.