JP5225969B2 - Stimulus preference evaluation method based on cerebral blood flow change measurement - Google Patents

Description

The present invention, the taste of food and drink, smell, or these comprehensive and flavor, cosmetics, related to palatability evaluation method for the etc. smell whether or not the consumer products such as toiletry products.

  The senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are called the five senses and are important sensations for the survival of humans and animals. They enjoy advanced use of the five senses, such as enjoying these five senses themselves.

Specifically, it is possible to eat and drink foods and beverages having flavors such as smell and taste, or to use products with smells other than food and drink such as cosmetics, fragrances, soaps, detergents, toiletries, and fragrances. is line for such etc., such as to enrich.

  When developing these products, make prototypes for people who are called internal and external monitors, like, like, dislike, pleasure / discomfort, sensory strength, product, It is a common practice to evaluate the taste of whether the concept is well reflected and to commercialize the product based on the results of the final consumer's preference. In addition, there is a case where a highly trained expert evaluates and predicts palatability instead of a general monitor inside and outside the company.

  However, the above preference evaluation has a drawback that it is greatly influenced by subjective factors such as individual differences, sensory fatigue, and physical condition changes. In particular, evaluation performed using human senses is generally called sensory evaluation, but is susceptible to such influences, and careful attention is required when performing the evaluation. Even with great care, sensory evaluation has many problems. One attempt to overcome this is the QDA method (quantitative descriptive analysis method), which gives objectivity to subjective evaluations. However, it takes time to select common terms and train the panel, and so on. There is a drawback that it is not suitable for the target sensory evaluation.

  Therefore, recently, a new technology has been developed that employs a method for observing and measuring physiological responses such as pupil size, heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves, magnetoencephalogram, cerebral blood flow, and stress hormone concentration. Application is underway.

Among them, research has been actively conducted and rapidly spreading are PET (Positron Emission Tomography), fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and fNIRS (Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. Light). Topography device: registered trademark, Hitachi, Ltd.).
fNIRS has the advantage that it is easy to attach and detach and allows the subject to perform a comparatively relaxed evaluation compared to an analysis method using a large and highly restrictive apparatus such as PET or fMRI (Non-patent Document 1). ).

  fNIRS is a device that measures the amount of hemoglobin using near-infrared light. Near-infrared light (NIR) in a specific wavelength region is incident from one side of the subject's head through an optical fiber, and the subject's head Part of the near-infrared light incident on the part is absorbed by hemoglobin in the tissue in the head, and the reflected light is detected by a detector on the scalp via the cerebral cortex. It is an apparatus in which the absorptance in the subject's head is measured by measuring the intensity of the detected near-infrared light (Non-Patent Document 1). As a technique using this device, there is a report disclosing which part of the brain is active by monitoring brain activity during sensory evaluation of tea flavor using fNIRS (Non-patent Document 2). .

  Furthermore, as another proposal using fNIRS, there is a report on inscription of taste as well as intentional inscription of senses such as visual, auditory, and tactile sensations involving the prefrontal area of the brain (Non-Patent Document 3). 4). According to this, an experiment was conducted to compare whether the two types of solutions were tasted in succession, and intentional memorization was observed regarding the taste. It also shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved. The phenomenon of inscription of taste is based on working memory (also called working memory, working memory) in cognitive psychology, which is a theoretical framework for structures and processes for manipulating information while maintaining it temporarily. It is thought to be a thing. However, with regard to foods and beverages with flavors such as taste and smell, preferences such as the degree of deliciousness, the degree of likes and dislikes, the degree of pleasure / discomfort, the degree of sensory strength, the degree of reflection of the product concept, etc. There is no description or suggestion regarding performing sex assessment and using fNIRS as an assessment to determine consumer preferences based on the results. Furthermore, it does not describe products having an odor other than food and drink such as cosmetics, fragrances, soaps, detergents, toiletries, and fragrances.

  In addition, the present inventors have made several proposals using fNIRS so far. Specifically, after drinking the sample after drinking the control, measuring the change in cerebral blood flow, and if the change is small, it is judged that it is adaptable, and the control and the sample have the same taste Taking advantage of the fact that the change in cerebral blood flow during sample drinking is less than the change in cerebral blood flow during control drinking, the target food and drink is controlled, and a flavor improver is added to increase adaptability. Addition and improvement proposals (Patent Document 1), flavor evaluation method using a comparative presentation method with a set of control and sample (Patent Document 2), and the step of sniffing when eating or drinking food (phase) 1) The taste of food and drink characterized by evaluating the appropriateness of the flavor by measuring changes in cerebral blood flow in each phase of the mouth (Phase 2) and swallowing (Phase 3) Evaluation of a fragrance characterized by measuring a change in cerebral blood flow when a food or drink to which a fragrance is added is eaten or sniffed and evaluating the suitability of the fragrance based on the measurement result Method (Patent Document 4), preparing multiple taste substances with different concentrations, allowing each subject to drink each sample, measuring changes in cerebral blood flow at that time, and responding to sensory evaluation of taste intensity and cerebral blood flow change A method for evaluating an appropriate concentration of a gustatory substance by utilizing the method (Patent Document 5), which is a food and drink whose taste varies depending on the subject's eating experience and belongs to the same category as the food and drink This is a method (Patent Document 6) of eating and drinking a plurality of foods and drinks, measuring the change in cerebral blood flow at that time, and evaluating the flavor of the food and drink based on the response intensity of the change in cerebral blood flow.

However, although the above proposal can be evaluated to some extent with respect to the flavor of foods and beverages and the evaluation of fragrances in foods and beverages, the change in cerebral blood flow obtained as a result of physiological response is the fluctuation of the waveform. There was a variation in the amount of change, and there was a problem that the reliability of data was lacking. Furthermore, no effective method has been proposed so far regarding the preference evaluation based only on the odor, which does not involve eating in the preference evaluation of food and drink. Thus, the taste of food and drink, smell or taste that was comprehensive of these,, cosmetics, etc. smell whether or not the consumer products such as toiletry products effective against a stimulus to be given the physiological response to lobbying from the outside of the person, the actual product There has been a demand for the development of a taste evaluation method that can be applied to development.

JP 2007-252350 A JP 2008-278997 A JP 2008-281386 A JP 2008-304445 A Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-212086 Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-220695

Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Vol. 123, no. 3, 2003, pages 160-163 Appitete, Vol. 7, 2006, 220-232 Ippei Dan, Masako Okamoto “Taste Memory and Human Brain”, p86-94, Vol. 24, no. 12, BIO INDUSTRY, 2007 Masako Okamoto and Ippeita Dan, “Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Human Brain Mapping of Tissue-Relative Cognitive Function” Jan. 103, no. 3, 2007

An object of the present invention is to improve a conventional evaluation method in which a subject is given a taste taste and / or olfactory stimulus of the same kind and measures a change in cerebral blood flow, which is a response to the stimulus, by fNIRS, and a method for increasing the change in cerebral blood flow And providing a preference evaluation method using the change in cerebral blood flow as an index.

  As a result of detailed examination of the findings so far, the present inventors performed taste evaluation, taste evaluation, or flavor evaluation combining these, and when measuring changes in cerebral blood flow with fNIRS, In the case of passive evaluation, such as eating or smelling several samples in succession and just evaluating, the change in cerebral blood flow measured in the meantime is small. For subjects who have a strong preference for sex products, for example, subjects who responded that they like a specific mayonnaise We found the fact that when subjects were given the task of “can perform ranking” and the subject actively evaluated, the amount of change in cerebral blood flow was greater than when no task was given. The subjects were assigned subjects and actively evaluated, and the points of cerebral blood flow change were examined. The conditions for increasing the amount of change in cerebral blood flow between each sample were examined in detail, while suppressing variations in measurement of cerebral blood flow change during the evaluation of each sample.

There are three important points for the above fact to hold. The first point is very basic, but in the evaluation of gustatory and / or olfactory stimuli, it is always necessary to give two or more similar stimuli to the subject in succession. The reason is that the taste, smell lightning which stimulation is not maintained relatively short time only the storage, in order to change to ambiguous over time, 2 or more taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimulation of allogeneic By continuously giving to the subject, the comparison of the stimuli of the subject becomes more objective, and the variation in the amount of cerebral blood flow that is the response of the subject at that time can be reduced. More simply, if a simple explanation is given, the subject cannot compare an objective stimulus compared to the memory of the sensory stimulus one day ago or one week ago. In comparison of sensory stimuli, it can be said that the shorter the sensation of stimuli to be given, the higher the reliability.

More important is the second point. The second point is that when performing the above-mentioned work, “Please experience two or more similar stimuli to be presented in the future and evaluate the preference after the experience ends”, or “ Please experience two or more similar products to be presented one after another and evaluate how much the presented products are preferable based on the product X that you normally use after the experience. " It is to give such a problem. By adding this task, the subject more actively evaluates two or more similar taste and / or olfactory stimuli, and the change in cerebral blood flow, which is the response of the subject, gives no problem at all. It was confirmed that it was larger than the case without it.

Also, the magnitude of the change in cerebral blood flow with respect to the taste and / or olfactory stimulation of the subject measured by the above method is good with the degree of preference obtained from the questionnaire results of the preference evaluation conducted simultaneously. It was consistent. Therefore, it was confirmed that the magnitude of the cerebral blood flow change amount can be adopted as the objective preference evaluation instead of the subjective preference evaluation based on the questionnaire results of the subjects.

That is, the cerebral blood obtained by continuously presenting two or more similar taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli to the subject and measuring the amount of change in cerebral blood flow, which is the sensory response of the subject within each presentation time. In the taste evaluation method for two or more taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli based on the magnitude of the flow change amount, the subject is strongly conscious that the preference evaluation performed by the subject is a work based on a working memory. Provide an objective evaluation method that can be applied to actual product development by measuring the changes in cerebral blood flow in a state where the task is added and giving a task for active evaluation. It has been found that this is possible, and the present invention has been completed.

Thus, the present invention is obtained by continuously presenting two or more similar taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli to the subject and measuring the change in cerebral blood flow that is the sensory response of the subject within each presentation time. A method for evaluating the preference of two or more taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli based on the magnitude of the change in cerebral blood flow, wherein the preference evaluation performed by the subject before the measurement is a work based on a working memory Two or more features characterized by giving a task of preference evaluation, which is an instruction to perform active evaluation , and measuring changes in cerebral blood flow with the task added The present invention provides a method for evaluating the preference of taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli.

  The present invention also provides the palatability evaluation method, wherein the cerebral blood flow is a blood flow of the cerebral cortex.

  The present invention also provides the palatability evaluation method, wherein the change in cerebral blood flow measures the change in the amount of hemoglobin in the blood by near infrared spectroscopy.

  The present invention also provides the palatability evaluation method, wherein the change in cerebral blood flow is a change in cerebral blood flow in the outer frontal region of the cerebrum.

According to the present invention, specimen having odor, or against the specimen with a flavor, can provide palatability evaluation method. Furthermore, by using the preference evaluation method of the present invention, it is possible to determine a product in anticipation of consumer preference, and to significantly increase the speed and validity of product development.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing scent sniffing and cerebral blood flow changes of three kinds of essential oil mixtures in a state where a task is added. Example 1 FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the smell of three kinds of essential oils and the change in cerebral blood flow (no problem) in the state where no problem is added. (Comparative Example 1) FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a time schedule between sample presentation, evaluation, rest, and questionnaire. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an ice cream evaluation method. (Example 2) FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing eating and cerebral blood flow change of a certain subject's ice cream A to C in a state where no task is added. (Example 2) FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram in which the evaluation results of ice creams of five subjects are averaged and graphed. (Example 2) FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the response of cerebral blood flow in the outer frontal area (channels 1 to 52) with respect to eating the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked ice creams with an average value for five subjects. . (Example 2) FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a shampoo evaluation method. (Example 3) FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the smells and cerebral blood flow changes of subjects A to C in a state where a task is added. (Example 3) FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the evaluation scores of the five shampoos A to C and the results of the T test. (Example 3) FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a comparison of cerebral blood flow responses (channels 1 to 52) in the outer frontal areas of shampoos A and B with average values of five subjects. (Example 3) FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a comparison of cerebral blood flow responses (channels 1 to 52) in the outer frontal areas of shampoos A and C with average values of five subjects. (Example 3) FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a comparison of cerebral blood flow responses (channels 1 to 52) in the outer frontal areas of shampoos B and C with average values for five subjects. (Example 3)

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.
The taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimulation in the present invention, sensory with human, against taste and olfactory in sensory so-called five senses, given physiological response encouraging from outside of a human, the human brain Means what is perceived as a sensation. Specifically, taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli possessed by various products correspond to this, and in that case, these stimuli may be present alone or plurally. In other words, the taste of food and drink, smell, or these comprehensive and flavor; cosmetics, although etc. smell whether or not the consumer products such as toiletry products include, but are not limited to these.

The same kind of irritation of the present invention is a group of products of the same kind that are usually associated, specifically, for example, various commercially available vanilla ice creams; commercially available ice creams having various flavors; and the base material itself is the same. However, ice cream with or without fragrance added; the base material itself is the same, but with or without fruit pulp; various carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks, tea drinks, etc. The same base material, but different flavors such as odor and taste, carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks, tea-based drinks, etc .; the basic composition of the base material is the same, but the bonito extract added is different Perfumes with the same basic composition as the base material, but different fragrances; indoor fragrances with the same basic composition as the base material but different fragrances; different fragrances Etc. sales of household detergent can be mentioned, but is not limited to these.

  In addition, continuously presenting the stimulus of the present invention means sequentially presenting two or more stimuli in a short time. Here, the short time includes a time in the range of 0.01 minutes to 60 minutes, preferably 0.01 minutes to 30 minutes, and more preferably 0.01 minutes to 15 minutes. A time exceeding 60 minutes is not preferable because the memory of the subject's stimulus is weak and ambiguous, and the accuracy of the evaluation of the stimulus is lowered.

In the two or more similar stimuli of the present invention, 2 or more means 2 or more and 7 or less, preferably 2 or more and 5 or less, more preferably 2 or more and 3 or less.
If it is 8 or more, the memory of the subject's stimulus is weak and ambiguous, and the accuracy of the evaluation of the stimulus is lowered, which is not preferable.

Next, the problem in the present invention is that, in the preference evaluation method of the present invention, two or more types of taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli are continuously presented to the subject, and the sensory response of the subject within each presentation time. It is an activity of palatability assessment given before measuring cerebral blood flow change, and it is actively made aware that the palatability assessment performed by the subject is a work based on short-term stimulation memory, so-called working memory It is an instruction to make a proper evaluation. Before starting the evaluation, explain it sufficiently to the subject and make them fully aware before starting the evaluation. Specifically, for example, to the subject, “Please sniff two or more scents to be presented in the future, and rank them after the experience.” Based on the ice cream X, the problem of “evaluating how much the presented ice cream is preferable.”, The problem of “priority ranking of bonito flavor among the three Japanese-style soup samples to be presented”, “usually, Based on the shampoo A that is preferably used, the degree of preference of the presented shampoo is evaluated. The ranking of the fragrances that image the seaside is performed for the four types of presented fragrances. "" the three essential oils can be cited challenge of determining. "whether mixture contained much in the mixture it is not limited thereto.

Next, stimulation preference evaluation in the present invention is to evaluate the degree of preference for a target stimulus, and in a simple way, it is a test subject's answer to the question of how much he likes the target stimulus. is there. There is an evaluation of the degree of preference with respect to the intensity or quality of the stimulus, and there is also an evaluation of the degree of preference with the intensity and quality of the stimulus, or other stimuli such as appearance and feel. Specifically, for example, an evaluation of whether or not a taste intensity of 2 or more is within a preferred range or ranking thereof, an evaluation of the quality of two or more stimuli (which has a more fresh feeling, which is more Evaluation of whether it has a green feeling, which is closer to rose fragrance, which is preferred by women, which is more luxurious, which is more Japanese-style flavor, which is more or with a natural vanilla flavor, or there may be mentioned etc. these ranking), but are not limited to.

  Next, in the present invention, cerebral blood flow changes are measured by, for example, commercially available fNIRS, optical topography apparatuses ETG-4000 and ETG-7100 (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Corporation: 52 channels), near-infrared optical imaging apparatus. It can be measured with OMM3000, NIRStation (manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation) and the like. Explaining in ETG-4000, the principle of this device is to irradiate near infrared light (wavelength longer than visible light) from the scalp through an optical fiber and use the scattering of near infrared light by hemoglobin in blood. Measuring the change in blood volume near the surface of the cerebrum as total hemoglobin (which corresponds to cerebral blood flow), oxygenated and reduced hemoglobin, and the sum of these. As a result of the activity of a certain part of the brain, it is known that the blood flow for sending oxygen to that part (cerebral blood flow) increases. The ETG-4000 can measure changes in cerebral blood flow for each of the 52 channels, and the time required for measurement and calculation processing is about 0.1 seconds, enabling real-time continuous measurement and a two-dimensional map. Can also be created. Furthermore, the advantage of this device is that it can be measured non-invasively (no direct burden on the body, such as injection, incision, electrode insertion, etc., only by indirect measurement from the outside), and the restraint on the subject Since it is low, repeats, and can be measured for a long time, there are few negative factors such as stress on the subject, which is suitable for evaluation of palatability. The change in cerebral blood flow is expressed as a change in the measured hemoglobin concentration. Generally, the unit is mM · cm (mmol · centimeter) or mM · mm (mmol · millimeter). In addition, by utilizing the fact that the absorption wavelength differs depending on the type of hemoglobin, measurement of oxygenated and reduced hemoglobin concentration changes using two near-infrared lights (695 nm and 830 nm) with different wavelengths, the total hemoglobin of the total hemoglobin Changes in concentration can be measured.

The use of palatability evaluation method of the present invention, various products or services, for example, food products, cosmetics, enables consumer preference predictions for etc. detergents other toiletry products, efficient development Can be done.
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to Examples and Comparative Examples.

(Example 1) Increase in cerebral blood flow by giving a problem A female in his twenties was selected as a subject, and the change in cerebral blood flow was measured by smelling the essential oil mixture of Sample A below. At that time, the subject was presented with three types of essential oils in advance, smelled, and given the task of “determining how much the three types of essential oils are contained in the mixture”. Measurement was performed as an active work. Further, Samples B and C were also measured in the same procedure as Sample A.

Measurement of cerebral blood flow was performed using an optical topography device ETG-4000 (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Corporation: 26 channels on one side, 52 channels in total). First, light emitting probes and light receiving probes were alternately arranged in a 3 × 11 array. The measurement part of the optical topography apparatus was attached to the subject's head, and the odor of each sample was presented according to the time schedule of FIG. After starting the measurement of cerebral blood flow, the subject took a rest for about 60 seconds, then sniffed the sample presented from the nozzle installed at the tip of the nose, and then rested for 60 seconds. The change in cerebral blood flow for 120 seconds including the rest for 60 seconds after the start of smelling was measured.
[sample]
Commercially available orange essential oil, lavender essential oil, and rose essential oil were used as samples, and samples A, B, and C were prepared at the following mixing ratios.
Sample A: Orange essential oil: Lavender essential oil: Rose essential oil: Air = 70: 10: 10: 10
Sample B: Orange essential oil: Lavender essential oil: Rose essential oil: Air = 30: 40: 20: 10
Sample C: Orange essential oil: Lavender essential oil: Rose essential oil: Air = 10: 40: 40: 10

(Comparative Example 1)
Prior to performing Example 1, the subjects were allowed to smell and smell the commercially available orange essential oil, lavender essential oil, and rose essential oil, and changes in cerebral blood flow were measured. However, as in Example 1, no problem was given, but scenting was performed and cerebral blood flow change was measured as a passive work.

[Measurement results and evaluation results]
FIG. 1 shows a time-dependent change of typical oxygenated hemoglobin in a channel 51, which is a representative measurement point of the outer frontal portion of the subject's cerebrum, during the scenting of Example 1. In all three measurements, cerebral blood flow change (relative value) showed a blood flow change of 0.4 or more, especially in sample A with 70% orange essential oil content, cerebral blood flow change started to smell Later, a large change exceeding 0.5 was observed in 40 to 70 seconds.

  FIG. 2 shows a typical temporal change of oxygenated hemoglobin in the channel 51, which is a representative measurement point in the outer frontal portion of the cerebrum, when the subject smells the comparative example 1. Compared to odorless air, the cerebral blood flow change is very small for any essential oil, and no clear peak is observed. That is, there was little change in cerebral blood flow when the task of sniffing was performed passively without giving a problem.

  As is clear from the results of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, the change in cerebral blood flow is small in the case of passive work when performing the task of smelling essential oil, and the work is given a specific problem. In the case of active work, there was a tendency that the change in cerebral blood flow was large. Therefore, when evaluating sensory stimuli such as sniffing, it was confirmed that the physiological response such as cerebral blood flow change of the subject is enhanced by giving a specific task.

(Example 2) Preference of ice cream and changes in cerebral blood flow Five commercially available ice creams A, B and C were prepared, and five subjects who had high preference for ice cream A in the previous questionnaire (20-40 years old) ) Was performed, and changes in cerebral blood flow were measured. At that time, the subject is given the task of “evaluating how much the presented ice cream is preferable based on the ice cream A that he / she usually likes to eat” and measured as an active work by the subject. Went. However, ice cream A, B and C were measured three times without notification of the order of eating. After the measurement, the deliciousness of the ice cream was evaluated according to the evaluation table shown in FIG.

  The cerebral blood flow is measured by using an optical topography apparatus ETG-4000 (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Co., Ltd .: 52 channels). First, measurement of an optical topography apparatus in which light emitting probes and light receiving probes are alternately arranged in a 3 × 11 array. The part was mounted on the subject's head and each sample was ingested according to the time schedule of FIG. The subject took a rest for about 60 seconds after starting the measurement of the cerebral blood flow, then ate the sample to be presented, and then took a rest for 60 seconds. The change in cerebral blood flow for 120 seconds including the rest for 60 seconds after the start of eating was measured.

[Measurement results and evaluation results]
FIG. 5 shows a typical example of a channel 50 that is a representative measurement point of the outer frontal portion of a subject's sensory evaluation when a sensory evaluation is performed with a sample eaten and a task added. It shows the time course of oxygenated hemoglobin. When the instruction for eating is set to 0 seconds, (maximum value of cerebral blood flow change for 15 to 40 seconds)-(minimum value of cerebral blood flow change for 0 to 15 seconds) is analyzed as the response amount during the task. It was.

  As is clear from FIG. 5, the maximum change in the cerebral blood flow of ice cream A was about 3.5 and about twice that of B and C, and the response was significantly greater than that of B and C. The other four subjects with different response magnitudes showed similar trends.

(1) Results of Sensory Evaluation Task FIG. 6 shows the results of comparison between ice creams by averaging the sensory evaluation scores of all subjects. The average values of all items including deliciousness were in the order of sample A> sample B and sample C. When T test was performed between A and B or A and C, a significant difference was observed. (P <0.05).

(2) Results of cerebral blood flow measurement FIG. 7 shows the ice cream that tastes most delicious and the ice that feels least delicious, with regard to the amount of response during task implementation at 52 locations (52 channels) where cerebral blood flow changes were measured. The result (average value of five subjects) of comparison between creams is shown. The response was very strong at 8 points in the frontal lateral part (9, 20, 22, 23, 30-33 channels), and p <0.01 even in T test. In addition, 5 sites (channels 41, 42, 45, 50, and 52) had a considerably strong response after the 8 sites, and 0.01 <p <0.05 in the T test. In addition, two places (44, 45 channels) had a relatively large response after these, and the result of T test was 0.05 <p <0.1.

(3) Conclusion Five subjects who had a high palatability for ice cream A in the previous questionnaire, without knowing the product name, “How much ice cream was presented based on the ice cream A that I normally eat? The task of “evaluating whether or not it is preferable” was implemented, and the cerebral blood flow change for ice cream A in all five people was significantly larger than that for other ice creams, and a significant difference was also confirmed by T test. From these results, it is considered possible to evaluate the taste (= preference) using the magnitude of cerebral blood flow change as an index instead of the taste evaluation by sensory evaluation.

(Example 3) Evaluation method of palatability of shampoo fragrance Commercially available shampoos A, B and C were prepared, 1 ml of each shampoo was taken into a 200 ml plastic cup, 20 ml of water was added, and a commercially available draining net (10 cm × 10 cm) ), Stirred with a glass rod, foamed well, and prepared the same foamed state each time.

  In a previous questionnaire, shampoo A was subjected to flavor evaluation by 5 subjects (female, 20-30 years old) who had high palatability, and changes in cerebral blood flow were measured. At that time, the subject is given the task of "evaluating how much the presented shampoo is preferable based on the shampoo A that is normally used." went. The specific measurement procedure, that is, the sample presentation, eating or smelling, resting, and questionnaire implementation procedures are shown in FIG. However, the shampoo A, B and C smelling order was measured three times without notification. After completion of the measurement, the shampoo preference, odor intensity, and scent were evaluated according to the evaluation table shown in FIG. The score was quantified as -3: dislike, 0: neither, 3: like (evaluation of palatability).

  With respect to one measurement, three sets of three samples were taken as one set, and two sets of measurements were performed continuously. For the two sets, for example, the measurement on the first day was performed by changing the permutation combination such that A → B → C in the first set and B → A → C in the second set. Table 1 shows the order of measurement from the first day to the fourth day. After each set, evaluation using an evaluation method and evaluation of palatability were performed.

  The cerebral blood flow is measured by using an optical topography apparatus ETG-4000 (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Co., Ltd .: 52 channels). First, measurement of an optical topography apparatus in which light emitting probes and light receiving probes are alternately arranged in a 3 × 11 array. The part was put on the subject's head, and the odor of each sample was presented according to the time schedule of FIG. After starting the measurement of cerebral blood flow, the subject took a rest for about 60 seconds, then smelled the presented sample for 30 seconds, and then took a rest for 60 seconds. The change in cerebral blood flow for 120 seconds including the rest for 60 seconds after the start of smelling was measured.

[Measurement results and evaluation results]
FIG. 9 shows a typical example of a channel 40 that is a representative measurement point of the outer frontal part of a subject's cerebrum during sensory evaluation when the sample is smelled and sensory evaluation is performed with a task added. This shows changes with time of oxygenated hemoglobin. When the start of sniffing was set to 0 second, (maximum value of blood flow change for 20 to 50 seconds) − (minimum value of blood flow change for 0 to 20 seconds) was analyzed as a response amount during the task.

(1) Results of Sensory Evaluation Task FIG. 10 shows the results of comparison between shampoos by averaging the ranking scores of the preference of all subjects as shampoos. The average values are more preferred in the order of sample A> sample B> sample C. As a result of the T test, there was a significant difference between samples A and B and samples A and C (p <0). .05).

(2) Cerebral blood flow measurement results FIGS. 11 to 13 show the results of comparison between shampoos regarding cerebral blood flow changes during sensory evaluation at 52 locations (52 channels) where cerebral blood flow changes were measured. Yes. In sample A and sample B, a measurement point having a slightly higher ratio of sample A> sample B was seen in the frontolateral part, but no significant difference (p <0.05) was found in the corresponding T test. In sample A and sample C, many measurement points having a high ratio of sample A> sample C were observed in the frontolateral region, and a significant difference was found in the corresponding T test (p <0.05). In sample B and sample C, many measurement points with a high ratio of sample B> sample C were observed in the frontolateral region, and a significant difference was found in the corresponding T test (p <0.05).

(3) Conclusion From the above, when sensory evaluation was carried out in the state of adding the subject of “evaluating how preferable the smell of the presented sample is as a shampoo based on the shampoo normally used”, Differences in the response during the sensory evaluation were observed depending on the presented samples, and the results showed that the response of the sample with a high preference score in the sensory evaluation was large. Based on this result, sensory evaluation was performed when sensory evaluation was performed with the task of `` evaluating how good the shampoo of the presented sample is as a shampoo based on the shampoo that is normally used ''. It is possible to consider that there is a correspondence between the magnitude of the response and the sensual preference.

Claims (4)

The subject is continuously presented with two or more similar taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli, and the change in cerebral blood flow obtained by measuring the cerebral blood flow change which is the sensory response of the subject within each presentation time. A preference evaluation method for two or more taste stimuli and / or olfactory stimuli based on the size, wherein the subject 's preference assessment prior to the measurement is strongly aware that the work is based on working memory, Two or more taste stimuli and / or olfaction characterized by giving a task of preference evaluation which is an instruction to perform active evaluation and measuring a change in cerebral blood flow in a state where the task is added Stimulus preference evaluation method.   The preference evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the cerebral blood flow is a blood flow of a cerebral cortex.   The preference evaluation method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein a change in cerebral blood flow measures a change in hemoglobin in blood by near infrared spectroscopy.   The preference evaluation method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the change in cerebral blood flow is a change in cerebral blood flow in the outer frontal region of the cerebrum.

Images