Welcome! Just in time to join me as I try these freshly baked crunchy cookies. They smell amazing! Oh, wait a second… I forgot to add the sound! There we go, much better!
You’ve probably noticed that how food looks, smells, and feels can change how you think it tastes. But have you ever considered how sound might affect your taste perception?
Crossmodal perception is when two or more of your senses work together. This happens all the time in real life. For example, at the restaurant Chilli’s, there’s something called The Fajita Effect. When one person orders a sizzling, crackling fajita, it often leads to many others ordering the same dish. The sound and smell make it irresistible!
Scientists have even studied how food sounds affect taste. At the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford, researchers asked, “Does the sound a food makes when you bite it change how you perceive its taste?” They used Pringles chips for their experiment. Twenty participants each bit into 180 Pringles and rated them on “freshness” and “crispness.”
During the experiment, researchers played the actual sound of the chip or modified it by changing the volume or frequency. When the sound was louder or higher in pitch, participants said the chips seemed crisper and fresher.
In Mary Roach’s book Gulp, Dutch scientist Ton Van Vliet explained that to get the crunch sound, you need crack speeds of 300 meters per second. It’s like a tiny sonic boom in your mouth! Foods like peanut brittle, which make higher-pitched and louder sounds, are often described as crispier.
Can sounds make food taste more bitter, saltier, or even sweeter? Could sound replace sugar? Researchers have found that people often match certain tastes with specific tones, known as “crossmodal associations.” Sweet and sour tastes are linked to high-pitched notes, while umami and bitter tastes are associated with low-pitched notes.
In another study, participants tasted bittersweet toffee while listening to either low-pitched or high-pitched soundtracks. The same toffee tasted more bitter with low-pitched sounds and sweeter with high-pitched sounds. This shows that what we hear can influence our perception of the tastes already present in food.
Currently, we can’t use sound to create a taste that isn’t already in the food. However, a few people, known as auditory-taste synesthetes, experience tastes when they hear certain sounds, even without food. This might happen because their brain regions for hearing and taste are directly or indirectly connected.
For most of us, how do our brains process sound and taste to create these taste biases? Researchers have found neurons that respond to multiple sensory inputs, but they’re still exploring the neural mechanisms behind crossmodal associations.
Understanding why and how one sense can influence another helps us navigate a world full of sounds, sights, smells, textures, and tastes. It’s pretty sense-ational when you think about it!
Gather a variety of foods that produce distinct sounds when eaten, such as chips, carrots, and crackers. Create a playlist of different soundtracks, varying in pitch and volume. As you taste each food, play different soundtracks and note any changes in your perception of the food’s taste and texture. Discuss your findings with your classmates to explore how sound influences taste perception.
Research a real-world example of crossmodal perception, such as the “Fajita Effect” or another phenomenon where multiple senses interact. Prepare a short presentation to share with the class, explaining how the senses involved work together and the impact on perception. Use visuals and sound clips to enhance your presentation.
Develop a recipe that incorporates sound as a key element of the dining experience. Consider how different sounds might enhance or alter the taste of your dish. Present your recipe to the class, explaining the role of sound in the overall sensory experience and how it might change the perception of flavors.
Organize a workshop where you and your classmates explore sound and taste associations. Prepare a selection of foods with distinct tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, umami) and pair them with different soundtracks. Record your observations on how each sound influences the taste perception of the foods. Share your insights with the group.
Conduct a research project on auditory-taste synesthesia, where certain sounds trigger taste sensations. Investigate the scientific theories behind this phenomenon and interview individuals who experience it, if possible. Present your findings in a report or presentation, highlighting the implications for understanding sensory perception.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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You’ve made it just in time! I was about to taste these crunchy cookies fresh from the oven. They smell delicious! Wait! Something’s not right… oh! I forgot to add the sound! Much better!
I’m sure from your own experience you know that the way foods look, smell, and feel can influence your perception of what they taste like. But have you ever thought about how sound influences your perception of taste?
Crossmodal perception occurs when two or more of your senses interact with each other. In the real world, this happens all the time. Cooks at the family restaurant Chilli’s speak of The Fajita Effect, where one person ordering a sizzling, crackling skillet of fajita meat leads to an influx of fajita orders from other diners.
We’ve even studied food sounds scientifically. Researchers at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford wanted to answer the question, “Does changing the sound a food makes when you bite into it change your perception of its taste?” Their food of choice was Pringles! They recruited 20 participants to bite into 180 Pringles each and asked them to rate each chip on its “freshness” and “crispness.”
With each bite, the researchers either played back the actual sound of the chip or modified the sound by adjusting the volume or frequency. When the biting sound was louder or at a higher frequency, participants reported the chips being significantly crisper and fresher.
In Mary Roach’s book *Gulp*, Dutch scientist Ton Van Vliet mentioned that to get the crunch noise, you need to crack speeds of 300 meters per second. The crunch of a chip is a tiny sonic boom inside your mouth. Similarly, other researchers have found that foods that produce higher-pitched and louder sounds when bitten into, like peanut brittle, are described as crispier.
But are there sounds that can make food taste more bitter, saltier, or even sweeter? Could sound replace sugar? Researchers have found that people can reliably match certain tastes with specific tones, known as “crossmodal associations.” People associate sweet and sour tastes with high-pitched notes and umami and bitter tastes with low-pitched notes.
So, can changing the sounds in your environment while you eat a food change your perception of its taste? In another study, researchers asked participants to taste pieces of bittersweet toffee and rate each piece on its bitterness and sweetness. But with each taste, they either heard a soundtrack of low-pitched notes or a soundtrack of high-pitched notes.
Participants reported that the same toffee tasted more bitter when listening to the low-pitched soundtrack and sweeter when listening to the high-pitched soundtrack. So, what we hear can bias our perception of the tastes already present in the food, like the bitter and sweet tastes of the bittersweet toffee.
However, we can’t use sound to create a taste that isn’t already present in the food… yet. Only a very small number of people in the world experience tastes on their tongue when they hear different sounds without food. They’re known as auditory-taste synesthetes, and the theory is that in their brains, the regions associated with hearing directly or indirectly activate the regions associated with taste.
But what about the majority of people who are not auditory-taste synesthetes? How are our brains processing sound and taste to create taste biases? So far, researchers have found neurons in the brain that respond to multiple types of sensory inputs, but they’re still investigating all the neural mechanisms underlying crossmodal associations.
Finding out why and how one of our senses can influence our perception of another sense can help us understand how we navigate through a world full of sounds, sights, smells, textures, and tastes! When you think about it, it’s pretty sense-ational!
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This version maintains the original content while ensuring clarity and readability.
Taste – The sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, primarily on the tongue. – The study of taste helps scientists understand how different flavors can influence human behavior and preferences.
Sound – A vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid, or solid. – Researchers in psychology often explore how sound can affect mood and cognitive performance.
Perception – The process by which individuals organize and interpret sensory information to represent and understand the environment. – Perception plays a crucial role in how we interpret visual illusions and can vary significantly from person to person.
Crossmodal – Relating to or involving different sensory modalities, such as sight and sound, working together. – Crossmodal research investigates how the brain integrates information from different senses to create a cohesive perception of the world.
Science – The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. – Science provides a framework for understanding complex phenomena, from the workings of the human brain to the vastness of the universe.
Research – The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. – Conducting research in psychology helps uncover the underlying mechanisms of human thought and behavior.
Associations – Connections or relationships between ideas, concepts, or stimuli, often formed through experience or learning. – In psychology, associations between stimuli can explain how habits are formed and maintained over time.
Neurons – Specialized cells in the nervous system that transmit information through electrical and chemical signals. – Understanding how neurons communicate is essential for developing treatments for neurological disorders.
Influence – The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. – The influence of environmental factors on human psychology is a key area of study in behavioral science.
Psychology – The scientific study of the mind and behavior, including the examination of conscious and unconscious phenomena. – Psychology explores various aspects of human experience, from perception and cognition to emotion and motivation.
