Detection of very complex taste mixtures: generous integration across constituent compounds

Mixtures of compounds can often be tasted even when all of their components are too weak to be tasted separately. Such mixtures are said to be integrative. Integration was demonstrated by mixing compounds in concentrations proportional to their separate detection thresholds and then measuring the detection threshold of the mixture as a whole by forced choice with plain water. Mixtures of 3, 6, 12, and 24 compounds were thus evaluated. With earlier data on two-, three-, and four-component mixtures (Stevens, J. C. Detection of taste in mixture with other tastes: Issues of masking and aging. Chem. Senses 21:211-221; 1996.), the results show that the concentration of any constituent compound goes down in approximate proportion to the number of compounds with which it is in mixture. This nearly complete integration seems to describe mixtures of like-quality compounds, of unlike-quality compounds, and of both like- and unlike-quality compounds. Integrative mixtures of the sort studied here provide a model for the detection of the ultracomplex stimuli of everyday life, such as foods and drinking waters. Although the degree of integration may trail off slightly with mixtures of high complexity, the present result proffers no limit on the number of compounds that can be at least partially integrated. In principle, integration permits the detection of natural substances whose myriad components could all be far below threshold. The mechanism of taste integration is speculative, but the facts are congenial to the hypothesis of multiple parallel channels for the processing of intensity and quality.