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Results for “Taste Perception”

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PubMed1985

Taste responses to saltiness among hypertensive subjects under different therapeutic regimens.

Dietary sodium restriction is increasingly regarded as important in the prevention and treatment of essential hypertension. However, low-sodium diets are frequently considered unpalatable and therefore unfeasible. The objectives of this study were to determine (a) whether hypertensives, treated and untreated, differ in saltiness taste perception from age-matched normotensive controls and (b) whether sodium reduction can be accomplished by substituting another taste stimulus without reducing apparent saltiness and palatability. Subjects included 72 hypertensives, 44 to 69 years old, divided among three treatment groups; 25 age-matched normotensive controls; and an additional 21 normotensives, 20 to 43 years old, to provide an age continuum for evaluating age effects. Taste responses were measured in terms of saltiness intensity and preference using tomato juice varying systematically in sodium chloride and citric acid content. No significant differences were found between normotensives and hypertensives. No significant effects were associated with blood pressure status, therapeutic regimen, age, sex, race, or anthropometric measurements. Both sodium chloride and citric acid were main effects for saltiness, allowing a trade-off between salt and acid. Addition of citric acid permitted 50% reduction of sodium content in tomato juice without disturbing palatability criteria. Results provide a model for modifying other processed foods.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

PubMed1989

Taste evaluation and compliance of two paediatric formulations of phenoxymethylpenicillin in children.

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the taste of two formulations of phenoxymethylpenicillin suspension in children. The two suspensions, designated Test and Standard, differed only in their flavouring and sweetening agents. The secondary objectives were to study age-related differences in taste perception, to evaluate the acceptability of the suspensions, and to determine patient compliance. In 319 children with acute otitis media a taste description was recorded after a single therapeutic dose. The patient's own spontaneous verbal judgements, directly after the dose intake and also 3-4 minutes later, were recorded. The parents were asked about the child's acceptance of the suspension after finalized treatment. For 214 patients compliance was calculated from the remaining amount of suspension in the returned medication bottles. The study indicated that children aged 6 years or older considered the test formulation to be better-tasting than the standard formulation. The judgements by the parents also indicated that the test suspension was more acceptable. In children below 6 years there was no significant difference between the two suspensions with regard to taste or acceptance. A high patient compliance (greater than or equal to 90%) was obtained in 88% of the patients.

Child↗

PubMed1986

Naloxone modulates gustatory perception, but not insulin and C-peptide release, in sham-fed human subjects.

In order to determine the role of the endogenous opiatergic system in modulation of human pancreatic B-cell function and taste perception, we measured the reactivity of gustatory receptors (electrogustometry), insulin and C-peptide serum concentration (radioimmunoassay) in six normal men (aged 24-26 years) during sham feeding and 0.8 mg of naloxone or placebo (saline) administration. We did not observe any differences in insulin and C-peptide concentrations during tease feeding independently of placebo or naloxone infusion. The verge of electric reactivity of gustatory perception significantly decreased in the period of food presentation and saline administration but did not change under naloxone. Our electrogustometry results support the hypothesis pointing out the role of endogenous opiates in modulation of human taste.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

Taste and salivary function.

Human taste perception was remarkably unimpaired in eight individuals with severe, chronic failure of all major and minor salivary gland function. Subjective reports of taste experience and objective measures of suprathreshold sensitivity were within normal limits for the overwhelming majority of these individuals. Impairments of threshold sensitivity for at least one quality was common, but normal thresholds for all four qualities were observed in one individual. These data demonstrated that the functional integrity of the taste system is not dependent upon the presence of normal saliva in the mouth. Thus, the suggestion that a salivary factor is responsible for the maintenance of taste receptor end organs can be rejected and attention directed toward other mechanisms, not dependent on saliva, that might account for the unusual resistance of these cells to environmental insult.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Early developmental change in bitter taste responses in human infants.

Human newborns (birth-6 days) and older infants (14-180 days) were allowed to ingest both urea (0.12-0.24 M) in a mildly sweet diluent and the diluent alone, and multiple measures of responsivity were obtained (relative intake, sucking behavior, and hedonic ratings based on facial expressions and body movements). For newborns, there was no indication of rejection of urea relative to the diluent in measures of intake or sucking behavior; rather, their responses were predominantly controlled by the order of presentation of the two tastes. In contrast, older infants tended to reject all concentrations of urea according to these measures. Hedonic ratings provided an indication of limited rejection of the bitter taste by newborns, but older infants were still found to respond more consistently. These data suggest there is an early developmental change in bitter taste perception.

Facial Expression↗

PubMed1986

Clinical applications and mechanism of intravenous taste tests.

It is well known that there are two ways to measure human blood circulation time: the arm-to-lung and the arm-to-tongue method. The decholin (20% dehydrocholic acid) test is usually used to measure the arm-to-tongue circulation time. In this study, this procedure was used to examine taste function. Findings on the clinical application of this intravenous taste test using decholin and a study on the mechanism of venous taste perception are reported here. The following method was used: Five ml of 20% decholin were injected into the right cubital vein over a 10-sec period and the latent time, the duration, the quality of the taste sensation and the region of the tongue where the taste appeared were noted. The results were as follows: 1) In dysgeusic subjects, the latent period was longer, and the duration of the taste sensation was shorter than in normal subjects (p is less than 0.01, p is less than 0.05). 2) Some of the dysgeusic subjects perceived the taste as other than bitter; their prognosis of taste dysfunction tended to be worse than that of other subjects. 3) Some of the dysgeusic subjects perceived the taste in regions of the tongue other than the bilateral edges or over the entire tongue; their prognosis of taste dysfunction tended to be worse than that of other subjects. 3) Some of the dysgeusic subjects perceived the taste in regions of the tongue other than bilateral edges or over the entire tongue; their prognosis tended to be worse than that of other subjects. In addition, photofluorograms of the tongue were taken to clarify the mechanism of intravenous taste; the time needed for fluorescence to appear in the fungiform papillae and their diffusion form in the papillae were observed and investigated.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Gustatory neural coding in the monkey cortex: L-amino acids.

1. Single-neuron activity in the primary gustatory cortex of the alert cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) was analyzed in response to a range of taste stimuli. Tastants included the four prototypical stimuli (glucose, NaCl, HCl, and quinine), fruit juice, and 12 amino acids selected for their chemical characteristics, nutritional significance, and biological importance, as well as for the availability of human psychophysical data on their perceived qualities. 2. Taste-evoked responses could be recorded from a cortical area that measured 3.5 mm in its anteroposterior extent, 2.0 mm mediolaterally, and 6.0 mm dorsoventrally. Gustatory cells constituted 4.8% of the 1,129 neurons tested. Nongustatory cells gave responses associated with mouth movements (11.1%), somatosensory stimulation (3.8%), approach or anticipation of the taste stimulus (2.2%), and tongue extension (0.4%). 3. The most effective taste stimuli were those with qualities that humans describe as salty or sweet: NaCl, monosodium glutamate, glucose, proline, glycine, and fruit juice. The least effective tastants were those rated bitter or insipid: tyrosine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and leucine. Accordingly, 79% of the gustatory neurons responded best to glucose (46%) or NaCl (33%) among the basic stimuli; only 19% responded best to quinine (13%) or HCl (6%). One cell (2%) responded exclusively to fruit juice. 4. Cortical gustatory neurons showed a moderate breadth of sensitivity, with a mean breadth of tuning coefficient of 0.71 across 54 cells. There was no evidence of chemotopic organization in the taste cortex. 5. The taste quality of each stimulus was inferred from the relative similarity of the profiles they evoked. The clearest distinction among stimuli was between those that humans characterize as sweet versus those with other qualities. Several amino acids that have dominant sweet (glycine and proline), salty (arginine and monosodium glutamate), sour (tryptophan), or bitter (phenylalanine) components to humans evoked activity profiles that were associated with those of the appropriate prototypical stimuli. Others (cysteine and lysine) were not closely related to any single prototype. 6. Conclusions based on the responses of cortical cells in the monkey are in close agreement with those that derive from human psychophysical studies of L-amino acids, reinforcing the value of this neural model for human taste perception.

Amino Acids↗

PubMed1986

[Differential taste sensitivity of Pygmy and non-Pygmy populations of the dense forest, Sudanese and Eskimos, in relation to their biochemical environment].

Significant differences of taste thresholds for different sugars, salt, organic acids, and bitter products, observed in human populations in contrasted environments, are related to potential variations of traditional diet. In this respect, biochemical composition of the environment would be the major selective pressure for taste perception.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

[Blood levels of corticosterone, aldosterone, angiotensin and ACTH in rats after deafferentation of the tongue].

The influence of tongue deafferentation on the plasma level of sodium homeostasis-controlling hormones has been studied. Using radioimmunoassay, high corticosterone and aldosterone plasma levels were discovered in rats with tongue deafferentation, as compared to sham-operated controls. ACTH and angiotensin I plasma concentrations in deafferentated rats were the same as in sham-operated rats. The role of emotional factors of taste perception in sodium homeostasis control is being discussed.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

PubMed2026

Dietary soybean or seaweed (Kappaphycus sp.) modulates taste-related gene (tas1r1 and tas1r2.2) expression in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Taste perception plays a central role in fish feeding behaviour by influencing feed recognition, intake, and nutrient sensing. As aquaculture increasingly adopts plant-based ingredients to replace fishmeal, understanding how these diets affect gustatory mechanisms is critical. This study evaluated TAS-family taste receptor genes in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed nutritionally formulated diets containing fishmeal (TFM), soybean meal (TSB), red seaweed (Kappaphycus sp., TSW), alongside a natural meal (TNM) reference. Fish were reared for 62 days under controlled conditions, after which growth performance was evaluated, and tongue transcriptomes were analysed using RNA sequencing to identify diet-associated gene expression changes. Candidate TAS1R and TAS2R receptors were identified through conserved domain screening and phylogenetic validation, and differential expression analysis was performed using DESeq2. Growth performance did not differ significantly among diets, although the soybean group showed the highest weight gain. Under the conditions of this study, most taste-related genes remained transcriptionally stable across formulated diets, indicating limited responsiveness of the gustatory system to ingredient substitution. Transcriptional differences were mainly observed in comparisons involving the TNM (TSB vs TNM and TSW vs TNM), where tas1r1 was upregulated, suggesting altered amino acid sensing relative to the non-formulated diet. Among formulated diets, tas1r2.2 was upregulated in the TSW vs TFM comparison, indicating potential modulation of carbohydrate-related taste pathways associated with seaweed inclusion. No reliable TAS2R transcripts were detected, likely due to low expression or tissue-specific distribution. Overall, taste receptor expression in Nile tilapia appears resilient to dietary variation, with selective modulation of TAS1R genes providing molecular insight into chemosensory adaptation to sustainable feed ingredients.

Animals↗

PubMed1976

A history of sweeteners--natural and synthetic.

Sweetness for the prehistoric man was the taste sensation obtained from sweet berries and honey. Man's quest for other sweet things led to sucose, starch-derived sugars, and synthetic sweeteners. An unusual source of sweet taste is a West African berry known as miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum). This fruit possesses a taste-modifying substance that causes sour foods--e.g., lemons, limes, or grapefruit--to taste sweet. The active principle was found to be a glycoprotein. Until this time, only small molecules were considered sweet-evoking substances, but now macromolecules are considered capable of participating in taste perception. The intense sweetener of the fruit of Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii, called the serendipity berry, was revealed to be a protein. The intensely sweet principle of Thaumatococcus daniellii, called katemfe, was reported in 1972 to contain two proteins having intense sweetness. Since intensely sweet protein sweeteners act directly on taste buds as a probe, a peptide linkage analogous to the aspartic acid sweeteners may be partly responsible for their sweetness.

History of Medicine↗

PubMed1985

Methyl xanthines enhance taste: evidence for modulation of taste by adenosine receptor.

The methyl xanthines (MX), theophylline, caffeine, and theobromine, are potent antagonists of adenosine receptors. Adaptation of the human tongue to methyl xanthines at concentrations ranging from 10(-5) M to 10(-2) M was found to potentiate taste. The artificial sweetener acesulfam-K, which has a bitter component, was potentiated the most by MX, i.e., approximately 100%. This increase in perceived intensity for acesulfam-K occurred at 10(-5) M MX, a concentration known to inhibit adenosine receptors but below that required to inhibit phosphodiesterase. Increasing the concentration of MX as high as 10(-2) M did not increase the degree of enhancement appreciably. Taste enhancement was found for NaCl and quinine hydrochloride as well. When 10(-5) M adenosine was added to the MX, the potentiation was reversed. The human results were confirmed by animal studies in which single unit extracellular recordings were made from the nucleus of the solitary tract. These results suggest that the inhibitory A1 adenosine receptor plays an important local role in taste perception.

1-Methyl-3-isobutylxanthine↗

PubMed2026

Predicting food taste with bound-driven optimization.

The prediction of sensory attributes from ingredient-level formulations is an emerging challenge at the intersection of food science and artificial intelligence. We address the fundamental question of whether the taste of a food can be predicted from its ingredients by treating recipes as composite materials. We apply Hashin-Shtrikman (HS) and Reuss-Voigt (RV) bounds, techniques originally developed for elastic moduli, as a null-hypothesis additive baseline for five taste dimensions (sweetness, sourness, bitterness, umami, saltiness) on a curated dataset of 70 recipes decomposed into 115 distinct ingredients scored against a library of 209 ingredient-level taste references with trained-panel ground truth. This baseline systematically under-predicts perceived taste: 77% of actual taste values exceeded the HS upper bound, with the exceedance rate ranging from 26% (bitterness) to 97% (saltiness). We traced this gap to specific processing chemistry (Maillard reactions, caramelization, evaporative concentration, protein hydrolysis, and nucleotide synergy) and introduced a hybrid model that augments the HS baseline with eight chemistry-proxy features encoding these mechanisms. Our results show that our interpretable hybrid model eliminates the systematic bias and reduces mean absolute error by 27%-62% for sweetness, sourness, umami, and saltiness while using only 10 interpretable features, achieving performance comparable to a black-box Lasso regression on 115 per-ingredient features. We further demonstrate constrained inverse design via Differential Evolution, recovering ingredient formulations that match target taste profiles subject to compositional bounds. Our work demonstrates how key chemical processes during food preparation can inform and augment physics-based and machine learning models, providing a quantitative fingerprint of processing chemistry's contribution to taste perception and paving the way for model-driven food formulation with targeted sensory characteristics.

Composite material bounds↗

PubMed2026

Genome-Wide Association Analyses of Bitter Food Preferences Link Genetic Loci to Sensory and Metabolic Pathways.

BACKGROUND: Genetic variation is implicated in individual preferences for bitter-tasting foods. However, previous studies have focused on candidate genes and limited varieties of bitter-tasting foods and have treated food preference scale responses as continuous data. OBJECTIVES: The present investigation aimed to identify genetic variants associated with preferences for bitter-tasting foods using ordinal multinomial regression models in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In addition, post-GWAS functional annotation and mapping, genetic correlations, and associations with dietary intake were examined. METHODS: Food preference and genome-wide genotyping data were used from the UK Biobank (n = 125,578). Preference data from Likert scale rankings (from 1 to 9) for 12 individual foods were analyzed using ordinal multinomial regression GWAS. In addition, 1 composite continuous variable was created for preference for cruciferous vegetables as a group and analyzed using a linear mixed-model GWAS to enable the calculation of a polygenic score (PGS) for cruciferous vegetable preference. Convergent validity of GWAS results was assessed with dietary intake data for the same food items in the CARTaGENE cohort (n = 8176). Post-GWAS gene-level and pathway-level association analyses were conducted in MAGMA (Multimarker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation). RESULTS: Forty-six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified for preferences for 11 bitter-tasting foods at a genome-wide significance level (P < 7.14 × 10-9). Gene-set analysis for enrichment identified pathways related to caffeine metabolism and bitter taste perception for preference of coffee without sugar and grapefruit, respectively. Genes with higher expression in brain tissues showed stronger genetic associations with cruciferous vegetable preference. The PGS for cruciferous vegetable preference was weakly correlated with intake (r = 0.05, P < 0.0001), but individual SNPs were not associated with intake in a consistent manner. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variation contributes to preferences for bitter-tasting foods among adults, and some links with food intake are detectable. Nevertheless, effect sizes are small and inconsistent, reflecting the multifactorial complexity of food intake.

bitter taste↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sweetening agents from natural sources.

Sweetness is an important taste sensation to humans. The absence of suitable sweeteners as alternatives to cyclamates and saccharin has led to a renewed interest in sweeteners form natural sources. A brief review of the history of sweetener usage provides a basis for understanding our present heavy consumption of sweet substances. The structure of naturally-occurring compounds possessing a sweet taste range from simple sugars to complex, intensely sweet proteins. The structural types include monoterpenes, diterpenes, triterpenes, flavonoids, steroid saponins, dipeptides, and proteins. Some of these substances are not, strictly-speaking, natural but are derived from natural sources by relatively minor chemical modification. The properties of two non-sweet substances, miraculin and gymnemic acid, are included because of their close relationship to the subject of sweeteners. Miraculin causes sour substances to taste sweet and gymnemic acid selectively blocks sweet taste perception. The second part of the paper presents some of the work on monellin, the intensely sweet protein from "serendipity berries" (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii). The physico-chemical studies of monellin provide convincing evidence that it is, indeed, a protein. Structural studies using denaturants and specific chemical modifications have provided a beginning of our understanding of the molecular basis of the sweet taste of monellin.

Chemical Phenomena↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Dysgeusias].

This is a review of multiple pathologic conditions associated with altered taste perception and identification. We stated the steps and the molecular basis of this sense. This paper includes two cases that exemplify two distinct types of dysgeusia; case, 1 a 48 year old man who had clinical manifestations of hypogeusia and dysgeusia for one year, probably secondary to air pollutants. Case 2, a 37 year old man who worked in the same factory and also had dysgeusia; we concluded that it was secondary to thermal and chemical agression of the oropharynx; his plasma and urinary levels of zinc were normal. Many medications and contaminants of air and water are related with changes in serum and urine levels of zinc, which is a determinant at several levels for the correct integration of the taste system. Namely it is important for synthesis of the metalloprotein, gustin, a parotid gland protein secreted into saliva, which in turns is very important to make union of the sapid substance (SS) with its receptor in the surface of the gustatory epithelium a the taste buds. Zinc is also related with neurotransmission of the electrical stimulus generated in the bud cell and ending in the central nervous system. There is an acute zinc loss syndrome, seen in patients treated with histidine, which simulates the steps in which taste sensation is integrated. A clinical approach for diagnosis of hypogeusic or dysgeusic patients must include a careful evaluation of the diat elements, an assesment of hereditary disorders, the type of work and contact with pollutants known to be related with dysgeusia. A special care regarding physical examination must be considered in particular a meticulous review of the oropharynx in order to diagnose inflammatory, neoplastic or neurological disorders. The levels of perception an identification of flavors: sweet, bitter, sour and salt, must be determined using the forced scale triple choice technic. Serum and urinary levels of zinc should be determined in each patient using a flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometer. A quantification of the activity of leucocyte alkaline phosphatase, a zinc metalloenzyme, is a useful aid, liver function tests. 13 and 14 determinations and serum protein electrophoresis are mandatory because many pathologic states of these organ systems are known to be related with disorders of taste. We wish to remark the important function of zinc in the taste system, the role of essential trace elements is receiving increased atention and these alterations are good examples of their clinical importance.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Taste preference and protein nutrition and L-amino acid homeostasis in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Changes in taste preference were investigated in a choice paradigm using rats under various states of protein nutrition. A preference for the umami taste substances, monosodium L-glutamate (MSG) with or without 5'-ribonucleotide (5'-guanosine monophosphate), was induced when dietary protein was within the normal range, but a preference for NaCl occurred under its marginal deficiency. A preference for both NaCl and glycine was induced under severe protein malnutrition, possibly reflecting the body's negative nitrogen balance. The strength of this preference paralleled the body's requirement for protein, and thus, like the protein requirement for normal growth, declined with age. When animals with L-lysine (Lys) deficiency consumed a Lys solution and began to grow normally, their intake of taste stimulus solutions changed from preferring NaCl and glycine to preferring MSG. The regulatory mechanism of preference for L-amino acid (AA) in rats deficient of an essential AA was related to the pattern of AA in plasma and brain. Data suggest that umami taste perception plays an important role in protein metabolism, and in maintenance of AA and ammonia homeostasis within normal limits.

Amino Acids↗

PubMed1985

The short-term effect of captopril on salt and water intake in the rat is not taste-specific.

We have investigated the extent to which captopril's short-term (1 h) effects on salt and water intake in the rat are caused by effects on taste. In single-bottle tests a low dose of captopril (0.5 mg/kg s.c.), which blocks the synthesis of angiotensin II in the blood but not the brain, increased equally the intakes of water, 0.05, 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45 M NaCl, 0.3 M KCl, 10 mM HCl, 0.14 mM quinine hydrochloride and 0.1 mM saccharin solutions without changing the animals' preference for or aversion to each with respect to water. In two-choice tests this dose increased water but not 0.15 or 0.45 M NaCl intake. A large dose of captopril (100 mg/kg s.c.), to block the synthesis of angiotensin II also in the brain, did not enhance water or NaCl intake. Neither dose affected NaCl or water intake by rats drinking in response to 2 M NaCl, 5 ml/kg i.p. We conclude that during the first hour following injection captopril has no major effect on taste perception or preference in the rat and does not stimulate sodium appetite in the sodium-replete rat. Our results support the hypothesis that low doses of captopril increase fluid intake by enhancing the synthesis of angiotensin II in the brain.

Angiotensin II↗