tasteelicited

Tasteelicited is a term used in sensory science to describe responses that are elicited by taste stimuli. It is a neologism formed from taste and elicited and is employed to refer to a range of gustatory-driven effects, including perceptual, physiological, and neural reactions that follow tasting events.

In practice, tasteelicited effects can be observed as subjective reports of taste intensity or hedonic value, as well as objective measurements such as neural activity in gustatory areas of the brain, autonomic responses, or motor behaviors related to eating. Researchers typically use controlled tastants representing basic taste categories (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami) delivered through gustometers or other standardized taste delivery systems to ensure consistent exposure. Data are collected via psychophysical scales, intensity and hedonic ratings, identification tasks, and, when available, physiological or neuroimaging methods such as EEG or fMRI to map gustatory processing.

Terminology and usage vary: the term is not universally standardized, and some authors prefer hyphenated forms like taste-elicited. In publications that employ the term, it is important to define its scope clearly to avoid ambiguity, especially when distinguishing tasteelicited responses from broader flavor or olfactory experiences.

Related topics include gustation, chemosensation, flavor perception, and taste receptor biology. Tasteelicited responses reflect the complex interplay between peripheral taste sensation and central processing that underlies how organisms perceive and evaluate food and drink.