METHOD OF DETERMINING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SENSORY STIMULI AND APPARATUS FOR USE IN SUCH METHOD

摘要

The present invention provides a practical screening method in which a complex mixture of flavour molecules (e.g. a natural extract) can be screened for molecules whose OGS stimulus exhibits an interaction with a particular second sensory stimulus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated method of determining interactions between sensory stimuli, said method comprising: providing a first olfactory, gustative and/or somato-sensory (OGS) stimulus by: - subjecting a sample containing a plurality of flavour molecules to a molecular separation to obtain a fraction containing a subset of the flavour molecules contained in the original sample; and - delivering said fraction to an organism's olfactory, gustative and/or somato- sensory (OGS) receptors; simultaneously providing a second sensory stimulus to one or more sensory receptors of the same organism; and recording the combined impact of the first and second stimulus on said organism. Another aspect of the invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out the aforementioned method.