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Abstract

Behavior

Integration of Animal Behavioral Assessment and Convolutional Neural Network to Study Wasabi-Alcohol Taste-Smell Interaction

Published: August 16th, 2024

DOI:

10.3791/66981

1State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, 2Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Contaminants Exposure and Health, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, 3Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Research and Development of Natural Drugs, and School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Medical University

Abstract

The commercial wasabi pastes commonly used for food preparation contain a homologous compound of chemosensory isothiocyanates (ITCs) that elicit an irritating sensation upon consumption. The impact of sniffing dietary alcoholic beverages on the sensation of wasabi spiciness has never been studied. While most sensory evaluation studies focus on individual food and beverages separately, there is a lack of research on the olfactory study of sniffing liquor while consuming wasabi. Here, a methodology is developed that combines the use of an animal behavioral study and a convolutional neural network to analyze the facial expressions of mice when they simultaneously sniff liquor and consume wasabi. The results demonstrate that the trained and validated deep learning model recognizes 29% of the images depicting co-treatment of wasabi and alcohol belonging to the class of the wasabi-negative liquor-positive group without the need for prior training materials filtering. Statistical analysis of mouse grimace scale scores obtained from the selected video frame images reveals a significant difference (P < 0.01) between the presence and absence of liquor. This finding suggests that dietary alcoholic beverages might have a diminishing effect on the wasabi-elicited reactions in mice. This combinatory methodology holds potential for individual ITC compound screening and sensory analyses of spirit components in the future. However, further study is required to investigate the underlying mechanism of alcohol-induced suppression of wasabi pungency.

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