Influence of Gender, Time and Intensity on Rating of Pleasantness of Food Odors
Advisor(s)
Thorsten Kahnt, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Jana Tegelbeckers, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Location
Room A117
Start Date
26-4-2019 11:25 AM
End Date
26-4-2019 11:40 AM
Abstract
The olfactory system is a central system that plays an essential part in the smell. Smell is an important sense because it is linked to parts of the brain that processes emotion and memory, so it can alert us to danger like fire or spoiled food when we are in trouble. Food is often used as a rewarding stimulus because it induces appetitive behavior, so it has the potential to make us approach and consume. People can love or hate certain foods or objects only by their odor. The participants in this study were given four savories and four sweet odors to smell when they were in a hungry state and rate them depending on the pleasantness of the odor. Then they chose one savory and one sweet odor and did a test rating the pleasantness and intensity of odor. There were two elements we looked at when analyzing the data. One, if the time of day and gender had any effect on the pleasantness of rating and two, the comparison between pleasantness and intensity in the two odors chosen after the first test.
Influence of Gender, Time and Intensity on Rating of Pleasantness of Food Odors
Room A117
The olfactory system is a central system that plays an essential part in the smell. Smell is an important sense because it is linked to parts of the brain that processes emotion and memory, so it can alert us to danger like fire or spoiled food when we are in trouble. Food is often used as a rewarding stimulus because it induces appetitive behavior, so it has the potential to make us approach and consume. People can love or hate certain foods or objects only by their odor. The participants in this study were given four savories and four sweet odors to smell when they were in a hungry state and rate them depending on the pleasantness of the odor. Then they chose one savory and one sweet odor and did a test rating the pleasantness and intensity of odor. There were two elements we looked at when analyzing the data. One, if the time of day and gender had any effect on the pleasantness of rating and two, the comparison between pleasantness and intensity in the two odors chosen after the first test.