Smells That Taste: Brain Links Aroma to Flavor, Shaping Thai Drinking and Eating Habits
A groundbreaking study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reveals that certain aromas can be interpreted by the brain as tastes, reshaping our understanding of flavor. Using advanced brain imaging, researchers show that retronasal odors—aromas we perceive when food is in the mouth and travels up the back of the throat to the nose—activate the taste cortex in the insula as if they were real tastes. In a small group of 25 healthy adults, the team demonstrated that aromas perceived as sweet or savory elicited neural patterns in the taste region that closely mirrored those produced by actual sugars or savory compounds. The implication is profound: flavor is not a simple recipe of separate senses but a shared brain code that fuses smell and taste earlier than scientists previously believed.