Figure 1. Experimental designs for the gustatory imagery tasks.

A. The gustatory imagery task using words (Letter G-V session). Five imagery items for each taste (sweet, salty, bitter, and sour) and non-food items were alternatively presented on the screen. Each stimulus was presented for 0.7 s, and the interstimulation interval (Rest) was set at 4 s. When the gustatory imagery item was presented (Gustatory stim.), participants were asked to recall the taste of the food; when the control (non-food) item was presented (Control stim.), participants were asked to recall its outlook. B. The gustatory imagery task using pictures (Picture G-V session). Similar imagery items of food and non-food items were alternatively presented on the screen. Pictures of foods/beverages indicated that the participants should imagine tasting what was indicated, whereas non-food pictures indicated that the participants should only look at the images.