Interactions between Flavor and Taste: Using Dashi Soup as a Taste Stimulus

There are many researches showing interactions between olfaction and taste. Many of them supported that the interactions are not innate, but are learned through our daily eating experiences. Stevenson (2009) called this phenomenon as “learned synesthesia”. The authors also showed the interactions between flavor and taste are learned and processed by higher cognitive systems in rats and humans (Sakai et al., 2001; Sakai and Imada, 2003). Here the interactions between umami taste and dashi flavors are developed by the daily eating experience of Japanese traditional cuisine. Twenty flavors (such as sea weed, bonito, onion, garlic, ginger etc. by courtesy of YAMAHO CO. Ltd.) were used as flavor stimuli. Taste stimuli are monosodium glutamate (umami substance, MSG), miso soup, and Katsuo Dashi (bonito soup stock). Participants tasted these stimuli, 12∼20 stimuli in a day, and evaluated the strength of umami taste, the palatability, congruity between taste and flavor with 100 mm visual analogue scales. The results of evaluations analyzed with the participants' daily eating experience showed the interactions between taste and flavor are developed by their own daily intake of traditional Japanese cuisine, especially dashi soup