Study on the cerebral and systemic changes caused by chewing of the foods with different taste and odor

在这项研究中，我们检测了咀嚼不同味道和气味的口香糖时脑血流量、体循环和自主神经活动（心率和血压变异性分析）的变化，以研究味道和气味的变化对这些值的影响。结果表明，咀嚼有味道和气味的口香糖增加脑血流量最多，这表明摄入有味道的食物对激活脑循环等循环系统很重要。此外，我们测量了咀嚼口香糖时唾液中分泌的皮质醇的量，以研究咀嚼不同味道和气味的口香糖的应激反应。结果表明，甜味和柠檬味的口香糖味道最好，咀嚼这种口香糖时，咀嚼过程中分泌的唾液量和唾液中皮质醇的浓度比咀嚼其他五种口香糖时要高。这些结果表明，咀嚼有味道和气味的口香糖，对受试者来说是美味的，会导致更多的皮质醇分泌，皮质醇是一种抗压力激素。

In this study, we examined the changes in cerebral blood flow, systemic circulation, and autonomic nerve activity (heart rate and blood pressure variability analysis) during chewing of gum with various tastes and odors in order to investigate the effect of changes in taste and odor on these values. The result was that chewing of gum with taste and odor increased the cerebral blood flow most, suggesting that intake of foods with taste is important for activation of circulation system such as cerebral circulation. Furthermore, we measured the amount of secreted cortisol in saliva during chewing of gum in order to investigate the stress response to the chewing of gum with different tastes and odors. The results was that the gum with sweetness and lemon odor tasted best, and when chewing this gum, the amount of saliva secreted during chewing and the concentration of cortisol in saliva were higher than when chewing the other five gums. These results indicated that chewing of gum withtaste and odor, which was delicious for the subjects, causes more secretion of cortisol, an anti-stress hormone.