Sensory specific satiety: More than ‘just’ habituation?

In this 2016 article, Wilkinson & Brunstrom firstly explain the popular belief that sensory specific satiety (the decline in pleasantness associated with a food as it is eaten relative to a food that has not been eaten) is controlled by habituation. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate whether ‘top-down’ cognitive activity has an effect on expression of sensory specific satiety (SSS). Participants were manipulated on their expectations on whether or not they would have access to alternative test foods (uneaten foods) after consuming a test meal (eaten food). Their desire to eat and pleasantness of the eaten food were thought to drop significantly more when uneaten foods were not available, but none of the findings backed up this hypothesis. Sensory specific satiety was not found to depend on top-down processes associated with the availability of other uneaten test foods. [NPID: perception, sensory specific satiety, satiety, habituation, top-down cognitive process, top-down, SSS, food pleasure]

Year: 2016

Reference: Wilkinson, L. L., & Brunstrom, J. M. (2016). Sensory specific satiety: More than 'just' habituation?. Appetite, 103, 221–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.04.019