Sensory-specific satiation and satiety

As a food is eaten, the pleasantness and desire to eat that food decline relative to other foods that are not eaten. This change in pleasantness and desire is described as sensory-specific satiety (SSS) or satiation. This phenomenon is thought to be important as a basic, biologically adaptive behaviour, since it describes satiation to the sensory characteristics of a highly liked food and promotes intake of other foods. The potentially adaptive value for omnivores is clear: SSS ensures intake of a variety of foods and not just the most favoured. Whilst the decrement in subjective pleasantness would appear to be a simple form of response habituation, systematic study of SSS does not support this assumption. SSS does not seem to be subject to dishabituation, is not affected by stimulus intensity, and is not potentiated with multiple opportunities to develop such SSS. Thus SSS might constitute a special form of response habituation, characterised by a decrease in affective responding to a specific food, yet evidence suggests that SSS is more functionally similar to stimulus satiation than response habituation. Although biologically useful, SSS serves us less well in an environment where food is highly palatable, varied, abundant and cheap, especially since, despite reduced liking for recently eaten foods, intake can remain high.