Food Hardness Affects Food Preference

 

-Published in Nature Communications

 

 

Research conducted by Yonsei Dentistry Professor Seok Jun Moon and his team has demonstrated that food hardness affects food palatability. The findings were published in Nature Communications, a sister journal of Nature, under the title “Mechanosensory neurons control sweet sensing in Drosophila.”

 

The team used fruit flies (Drosophila) to demonstrate that the flies prefer sweeter food items when the choice of food has the same level of hardness. However, as the level of hardness increases, their preference shifts towards food that is softer but less sweet. By showing that the flies’ preference for soft food at the expense of sweetness is regulated by specific mechanosensory neurons, the team has expanded the scientific understanding of the ways in which different sensory modalities cooperate to shape animal behavior.