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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals

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Published on: May 23, 2017

Music-taste interactions enhance gustatory and sensorimotor brain activity.

Alberte B Seeberg^1,2, Ana Teresa Lourenço Queiroga¹, Patricia Alves Da Mota³

¹Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, Aarhus, Denmark.

Scientific Reports

|June 11, 2026

Summary

Music significantly enhances taste perception by engaging overlapping brain regions, particularly in gustatory and reward areas. Congruent sound-taste pairings increase pleasantness and perceived congruency, revealing insights into multisensory integration.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Science
Psychology

Background:

Eating is a fundamental multisensory experience.
Neural mechanisms integrating auditory and gustatory input are underexplored.
Understanding how music influences taste perception is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how music influences the brain's encoding of taste.
To examine neural mechanisms of sound-taste integration.
To assess behavioral effects of music-taste congruency.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral data collected from 28 participants.
Three conditions: taste only, music only, and music-taste combinations.
Participants received sweet/sour solutions with congruent/incongruent music, rating pleasantness, intensity, and congruency.

Main Results:

Sweet and sour music/taste stimuli engaged overlapping brain regions (peri-rolandic, medial prefrontal).
Concurrent music-taste stimulation enhanced activation in gustatory and sensorimotor cortices compared to taste alone.
Congruent pairings showed increased activation in superior temporal gyri and rolandic operculum; behaviorally, congruent pairs were rated more pleasant and congruent.

Conclusions:

Neural enhancement in taste processing is driven by simultaneous multimodal input.
Specific congruent music-taste pairings modulate neural activity and enhance pleasantness.
Auditory cues shape flavor perception through multisensory integration, offering insights into neural basis of sound-taste interactions.