A Proposed Model of a Flavor Modality

Abstract

The perception of flavor occurs when a food or drink enters the mouth. Although the resulting perception depends on inputs from multiple sensory modalities, it is experienced as a unitary percept of a food or beverage. In this chapter the psychophysical characteristics and neural substrates of flavor perception are reviewed within the context of a proposed model of a flavor modality in which the diverse sensory inputs from the mouth and nose become integrated. More specifically, it is argued that a binding mechanism in the somatomotor mouth area of the cortex brings taste, touch, and smell together into a common spatial register and facilitates their perception as a coherent “flavor object.” We propose that the neural representation of the flavor object is a distributed pattern of activity across the insula, overlying operculum (including the somatomotor mouth region), orbitofrontal, piriform, and anterior cingulate cortex.

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