Neurogastronomy

[1] Anthropologically, over human evolution, the shortening of the nasopharynx and other shifts in bone structure suggest a constant improvement of flavor perception capabilities.

This input undergoes edge enhancement, increasing its signal-to-noise ratio by way of lateral inhibition due to mitral cells stemming from the glomerular layer.

[3] Here, connections with the hypothalamus and hippocampus indicate that olfaction stimuli affect emotion, decision making, and learning only after significant processing and rudimentary identification.

[4] Imaging studies show that obese subjects with impairment in dopamine circuits that regulate hedonic value have issues with reward sensitivity and resist functional homeostatic signals that normally would prevent overeating.

Psychologist Paul Rozin puts forth the idea of "benign masochism", a learned tendency that overrides the typically aversive stimuli because of the risk-taking or thrill-seeking associated with overcoming pain.

[10] In describing the flavor of wine, tasters tend to use words that function as a combination of visual and texture descriptors, and references to objects with similar odorant profiles.

[11] With neurogastronomy's roots in neuroscience and psychology, clinical translation into research in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, eating disorders, chemoreceptive deficits in cancer treatments, etc.

[13] In 2015, Gordon M. Shepherd, Dan Han, Frédéric Morin, Tim McClintock, Bob Perry, Charles Spence, Jehangir Mehta, Kelsey Rahenkamp, Siddharth Kapoor, Ouita Michel, and Bret Smith formed the International Society of Neurogastronomy (ISN).