Alliesthesia to food cues: heterogeneity across stimuli and sensory modalities.

Abstract Negative alliesthesia to olfactory and visual stimuli was assessed in 29 normal-weight women who, on alternate days, were either fasting or in a postprandial state after an ad libitum lunch. The participants were alternatively exposed to food and non-food pictures and odorants, and then rated for their hedonic appreciation (liking) and their desire to ingest (wanting) the evoked foods. While negative alliesthesia was observed only for food stimuli, it did not equally affect all food categories in either sensory modality. The stimuli representing foods eaten in typical local main dishes or having high energy density (e.g., pizza, bacon, beef, cheese) evoked clear negative alliesthesia, whereas this was not the case for those less consumed within a customary meal or associated with desserts (i.e., fruits). Furthermore, the visual food stimuli triggered a more negative shift in liking than did the food odours. Finally, the shift in wanting between pre- and post-meal state was more important than the shift in liking. These results suggest that alliesthesia may be influenced by both metabolic and non-metabolic factors.