Journal: Scientific Reports

Article Title: Unveiling plant protein astringency perception through neural and cellular responses

doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-23836-9

Figure Lengend Snippet: Illustrative overview of methodologies used to unveil the sensory, neural and cellular response to plant proteins. A combination of sensory trial with untrained human participants ( n = 100) using Rate-All-That-Apply, (RATA), a study of neural response in prefrontal cortex of human participants ( n = 34) measured using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and cellular response measured using saliva-coated oral epithelium based TR146-MUC1 cell lines was used to unveil plant protein astringency mechanisms. The astringency is uniquely detected in the prefrontal cortex of the brain leading to negative tactile responses which resulted from physical binding of plant proteins with saliva bound to oral epithelium, inducing astringency perception. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Leeds (MEEC 16–046 and PSYC-475) by the Faculty Ethics Committee, University of Leeds, UK.

Article Snippet: Data pre-processing and analysis was done using the NIRS Brain Analyzer Toolbox (operating in Matlab (MatLab 2023a, Mathworks), for pipeline of data processing see Supplementary Fig. .

Techniques: Functional Assay, Spectroscopy, Binding Assay

Journal: Scientific Reports

Article Title: Unveiling plant protein astringency perception through neural and cellular responses

doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-23836-9

Figure Lengend Snippet: Neural response of astringent pea protein formulations compared with tannic acid (a known astringent control). Schematic diagram ( a ) of the placement of detector (blue, D1-3) and source nodes (red, S1-8) spanning the right and left dorsolateral areas (F3, F4) and dorsomedial areas (Fz) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). ( b ) Block averaged overall neural response of changes in Oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) are plotted at three times points between 0–60 s. when consuming non-astringent water (Water), low astringent, viscosity matched 5 wt% total protein pea protein concentrate (PPC5), 15 wt% pea protein concentrate (PPC15) and 0.8 wt% tannic acid (TA). Beta values are plotted from T-stat ( n = 34 participants) with the colour legend indicating magnitude of difference. A positive value (warm colours) reflects increase in HbO compared to baseline whilst a negative value (cool colours) reflects decreases in HbO. Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) values are presented as bar and whisker plots with the interquartile range, minimum and maximum plotted for each sample in ( c ) astringency, ( d ) thickness, ( e ) sweetness and ( f ) creaminess presented as means and standard deviations of n = 34 with Bonferonni correction. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Leeds (MEEC 16–046 and PSYC-475) by the Faculty Ethics Committee, University of Leeds, UK.

Article Snippet: Data pre-processing and analysis was done using the NIRS Brain Analyzer Toolbox (operating in Matlab (MatLab 2023a, Mathworks), for pipeline of data processing see Supplementary Fig. .

Techniques: Control, Blocking Assay, Functional Assay, Spectroscopy, Viscosity, Whisker Assay