The role of congruency in retronasal odor referral to the mouth

Referral of retronasal odors to the mouth is a fundamental phenomenon of flavor perception. A previous study from this laboratory provided evidence that, contrary to prior speculation, taste rather than touch was the primary factor in retronasal odor referral. The present study further investigated this question by studying the role of congruency between taste and odor on retronasal odor referral under conditions that mimicked natural food consumption. Subjects performed odor localization tasks after sampling gelatin stimuli that contained various congruent and incongruent tastes-odor combinations. The results showed that when a congruent taste was added, referral to the oral cavity and tongue were significantly enhanced. In addition, the data also indicate that the degree of congruency between taste and odor may modulate the degree of odor referral to the mouth. These findings suggest that odor referral is maximized when congruent flavor dimensions are combined to trigger perceptual "flavor objects" that represent known or potential foods. The results are discussed in terms of the factors that play a role in the retronasal odor referral as well as the potential neural mechanisms that may underlie it.