Contributions of Smell and taste to overall intensity

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Abstract
The integration of olfaction and gustation in producing the sensation of flavor was studied using an almond extract stimulus presented with the Two-Module Delivery System. Almond in the mouth was found to influence the scaling of smell. The data sugest that this background effect is due to the diffusion of airborne molecules from the oral cavity to the olfactory receptors area. At least under some stimulation conditons, almond vapor in the nose was shown to afect the scaling of taste. When scaling overall intensity, subjects apparently added together the sensations of smell and taste to produce the sensation of overall intensity. However, for all combinations of odorants and tastants, the estimate of overall intensity was less than the sum of the estimate of the smell and the estimate of the taste. The data further suggest that when estimating the overall intensity, the magnitude assigned to the olfactory or gustatory sensations was less than that which have been assigned when estimating just smell or taste.