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But according to a new study, the food you eat before passing by the bakery may affect your likelihood of stopping for sweets—not just because you are already full
.
Scientists at Northwestern University in the United States have discovered that people's sensitivity to food smells is reduced by the food they have just eaten
.
So, for example, if you eat a colleague’s baked goods before taking a walk, you may be less likely to stop and go to the fragrant bakery
The study titled "Olfactory perceptual decision-making is biased by motivational state" was published in PLOS Biology on August 26
.
Smell controls what we eat and vice versa
The study found that participants who had just eaten a meal of bread or pizza were less likely to smell "matching food
.
" The results of a brain scan confirmed this finding, which showed that the part of the brain that processes odor has changed in a similar way
These findings suggest that, just as the sense of smell regulates what we eat, what we eat in turn regulates our sense of smell
.
Thorsten Kahnt, assistant professor of neurology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said feedback between food intake and the olfactory system may be good for evolution
.
"Think about our ancestors wandering in the forest looking for food, they found and ate berries, and then became less sensitive to the smell of berries," Kahnt said
.
"But maybe they are still sensitive to the smell of mushrooms, so theoretically, this may help promote the diversity of food and nutrient intake
Although we don't see hunting-gathering adaptations in our daily decision-making, the connection between our noses, what we are looking for, and what we can detect with our noses may still be very important
.
For example, if the nose is not working properly, the feedback loop may be interrupted, leading to eating disorders and obesity problems
Through brain imaging, behavioral testing, and non-invasive brain stimulation, Kahnt's laboratory has studied how the sense of smell can guide learning and appetite behavior, especially when it is associated with mental illnesses such as obesity, addiction, and dementia
.
In a past study, the research team found that the brains of participants who were sleep deprived changed their response to odors.
According to Laura Shanahan, a postdoctoral researcher in Kahnt's lab, there is very little research on how odor perception changes due to different factors
.
"There are some studies on odor pleasure, but our work focuses on people's sensitivity to these odors in different states
Pizza and cinnamon
To conduct this research, the research team developed a new task that asked participants to smell a mixture of food and non-food odors ("pizza and pine" or "cinnamon bun and cedar"-"a good match" And different smells)
.
From pure food to pure non-food, the ratio of food to non-food odor in each mixture is different
Participants completed two tasks in the MRI scanner: the first time when they were hungry, and then after they ate a meal that matched the two odors
.
"While the MRI scanner was doing the first part of the experiment, I was cooking in another room," Shanahan said
.
"We want everything to be fresh, prepared and hot, because we want participants to eat as much as possible until they are very full
Then, the research team calculated how much food odors are needed in the mixture at each stage, making participants think that food odors dominate
.
The research team found that when participants were hungry, they needed a lower percentage of food odors to consider it as the dominant odor—for example, hungry participants might need 50% of the cinnamon bun and cedar mixed odor when they were hungry, but at It takes 80% when it is filled with cinnamon buns
.
Through brain imaging, the research team provided further evidence for this hypothesis
.
MRI brain scans showed that similar changes occurred in the part of the brain that processes odors after meals
.
The brain's response to odors that match the odor of food is more "food-like" than its response to non-food odors
.
Apply research findings to future sleep deprivation research
The findings of this research will allow Kahnt Labs to carry out more complex projects
.
Kahnt said that with a better understanding of the feedback loop between smell and food intake, he hopes to bring the full cycle of this project back to sleep deprivation, to see if lack of sleep can damage this cycle in some way
.
He added that with brain imaging technology, there are more questions about how adaptation affects the brain's sensory and decision-making circuits
.
"After a meal, the olfactory cortex no longer represents the food odor that matches the food like food, so adaptation seems to occur relatively early in the processing process," Kahnt said
.
"We are tracking how this information changes and how other parts of the brain use this changed information to make decisions about food intake
.
"
(Biocom)
Journal Reference :
Laura K.
Shanahan, Surabhi Bhutani, Thorsten Kahnt.
Olfactory perceptual decision-making is biased by motivational state .
PLOS Biology , 2021; 19 (8): e3001374 DOI: 10.
1371/journal.
pbio.
3001374
