The mechanisms by which taste and odor are combined in determining food choice behavior are poorly understood. Previous work in human subjects has yielded mixed results, potentially due to differences in task context across studies, and a lack of control over flavor experience. Here, we used rats as a model system to systematically investigate the role of experience and unisensory component liking in the multisensory interactions underlying consumption behavior. We demonstrate that taste-smell mixture consumption is best explained by a linear average of component liking. The observed pattern of results was not dependent on prior experience with specific taste-smell combinations, and unique for multisensory as opposed to unisensory mixture consumption. The results are discussed with respect to existing models of flavor integration, and a maximum-likelihood integration model previously described for multisensory judgments in other systems.

中文翻译：

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大鼠味觉消耗背后的多感觉相互作用：经验和喜欢单感觉成分的作用。

人们尚不清楚将味道和气味结合在一起以确定食物选择行为的机理。先前在人类受试者中所做的工作产生了不同的结果，这可能是由于各个研究的任务背景不同以及缺乏对风味体验的控制所致。在这里，我们使用大鼠作为模型系统来系统地研究经验和喜欢单感组件在消费行为基础的多感官互动中的作用。我们证明，通过成分喜好的线性平均值可以最好地解释味道混合混合物的消耗量。观察到的结果模式不依赖于具有特定味道-气味组合的先前经验，并且对于多感官而言是独特的，与单感官混合物的消耗相反。讨论了有关现有风味整合模型的结果，