Abstract
Oral referral is central to multisensory flavour perception. The phenomenon, first described a little over a century ago, is characterized by the mislocalization of food-related olfactory stimuli to the oral cavity. Many researchers believe that it contributes to the widespread confusion concerning which sense really provides the information that is bound together in flavour percepts. In this review, evidence supporting the role of a number of factors that have been suggested to modulate oral referral, including tactile capture of olfaction, the relative timing of olfactory and gustatory stimuli, and gustatory capture (possibly involving prior entry) is critically evaluated. The latest findings now support the view that the oral referral of orthonasal aroma (what some have chosen to call orthonasal location binding) is modulated by taste intensity, while for retronasal odours, it is the congruency between the odour-taste(s) pairing that is key. Specifically, the more congruent a particular combination of olfactory and gustatory stimuli, the more likely the component unisensory stimuli will be bound together as a flavour object (or Gestalt) and, as a result, localized together to the oral cavity. The possible roles of attention, attentional capture, and the nutritional significance of the taste in the phenomenon of oral referral are also reviewed. Ultimately, the suggestion is made that oral referral may reflect a qualitatively different kind of multisensory interaction.
Highlights
Researchers have known for almost a century that olfactory stimuli detected via the retronasal route are often mislocalized, such that they appear to originate from the oral cavity (Hollingworth & Poffenberger, 1917, pp. 11–14).1 In turn, this perceptual illusion is commonly thought to be part of the reason why we all confuse smell with taste so frequently (Lim & Johnson, 2011, 2012)
The results suggested that, by itself, oralsomatosensory stimulation wasn’t especially relevant when it comes to eliciting the oral referral of retronasal odours to the mouth
The results reported can be taken to suggest, and in some cases demonstrate, that a number of factors modulate the oral referral of olfactory stimuli to the mouth: these factors include von Békésy’s (1964) intriguing suggestion regarding relative stimulus timing, the intensity of the gustatory stimulus, and the congruency between the olfactory and gustatory inputs
Summary
Researchers have known for almost a century that olfactory stimuli detected via the retronasal route are often mislocalized, such that they appear to originate from the oral cavity (Hollingworth & Poffenberger, 1917, pp. 11–14). In turn, this perceptual illusion is commonly thought to be part of the reason why we all confuse smell with taste so frequently (Lim & Johnson, 2011, 2012). 11–14; Murphy & Cain, 1980; Murphy, Cain, & Bartoshuk, 1977; Spence, 2015b; Spence, Smith, & Auvray, 2015; see Titchener, 1909). Most people typically underestimate the relative contributions of smell and taste to the perception of flavour Another reason, or so it has been suggested, as to why the layperson may underestimate the role of olfaction in flavour perception is that they equate olfaction only with orthonasal smell (i.e., with sniffing)
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