Professor Yoshiaki Miyashita of the Faculty of Comprehensive Mathematics, Meiji University and others have developed a method to strengthen the aftertaste felt in the pharynx by electrical stimulation and prolong the duration of the aftertaste. And software workshop: September 2018-26, 2018).
Many methods for presenting, suppressing, and enhancing taste using electrical stimulation have been proposed, but most of these studies have focused on the oral cavity.Since taste buds (a group of taste cells that sense taste) exist not only in the oral cavity but also in the pharynx, the research group focused on the aftertaste felt in the pharynx and succeeded in developing an electrical stimulation method.
By placing the anode under the chin and applying electrical stimulation in the form of placing the cathode behind the neck and drinking the beverage in that state, the aftertaste of a commercially available beverage with sweetness or acidity can be strongly felt or aftertaste. The effect was that it took longer to feel.This result not only showed that electrical stimulation is effective for the aftertaste after swallowing, but also the aftertaste for beverages containing sweetness, which was conventionally difficult to control the taste by electrical stimulation. It was also confirmed that it is possible to increase the amount of water.
In the future, we will clarify which taste quality this electrical stimulation is effective for all five basic tastes (sweet, taste, salt, acid, bitterness) and elucidate the mechanism of this method to strengthen the aftertaste. It is expected that the length of the pod duration will be controlled, leading to an improvement in eating habits.
