When you enjoy food, it’s not just about the taste. The appearance, flavor, and texture also play a role. Some food items are ...

Scientists have discovered that fruit fly larvae can actually "taste" food texture, thanks to specialized neurons in their ...

The researchers established that maggots will not eat food that is too hard or too soft, but if it is just ...

Start by isolating the five fundamental tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Use pure substances—sugar for sweet, ...

A study led by Nikita Komarov and Simon Sprecher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, has discovered neurons in the ...

DANIEL: Texture, it turns out, is as important a signal to the maggot as how bitter or toxic a food is. Komarov then examined one of the neurons within the taste organ. He found it responds to ...

As a result, the maggots lost their sense of taste texture and tried eating food that was softer or harder than their usual preference. Further experiments revealed that the painless ...

Some creatures — like maggots — love to feed on decaying fruit. New research shows that they associate the texture of food with how tasty it is, too. So how did researchers figure that out?