You’ve probably experienced it: a bite of a favourite food from when you were growing up, and suddenly you’re a kid again, sitting down at the table as Mum or Dad brings out a home-cooked dinner.
Well, according to a study from the UK’s Lancaster University, the taste of familiar food could also help older people “time travel” back to their youth, recapturing memories of when they tried the dish for the first time.
Published in Human Computer Interaction, the study, titled “It took me back 25 years in one bound”: self-generated flavour-based cues for self-defining memories in later life, worked with 12 older adults to collect 72 memories associated with eating, then used 3D printing technology to create “flavour-based cues” – small edible gel-like balls mimicking the original food.
The researchers found that tasting the cues made the memories more vivid and striking; one participant experiencing the taste of a Thai green curry they had eaten in Cambodia recalled “the chopping noises of cutting up the vegetables, me sitting on the floor cross legged with my friend, chatting together.
“And then when we went out, put stuff on the tables, the rest of the group coming out and we sit on long tables outside, the front of the school, so it’s outside in the open air to eat,” they said.
According to Dr Tom Gayler, one of the authors of the study, these cues could be used to help people with dementia recall important memories.
“Working alongside people to create flavour-based cues highlighted how powerful but underused this connection is.
“Our design approach helped bridge this gap and showed the potential for future applications to create rich, multi-sensory memory aides,” he said.
It certainly sounds more delicious than a DeLorean.
