Background

There are five common, independent measures used to characterize taste function in humans: detection and recognition thresholds (DT and RT), suprathreshold intensity ratings of prototypical tastants, propylthiouracil (PROP) bitterness intensity, and fungiform papillae (FP) number.

Methods

We employed all five methods to assess taste function of 65 women (21.5 ± 4 years, BMI 22.3 ± 2.8 kg/m²). Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the different measures.

Results

The DT and RT were positively correlated for sweet, bitter, sour, and umami (p < 0.05), but not for salt. The DT or RT did not correlate with suprathreshold intensity ratings, except for umami (suprathreshold intensity and RT: r = −0.32, p = 0.009). FP number did not correlate with any measurement of taste function. PROP bitterness intensity ratings did not correlate with any measurement of taste function, except for suprathreshold ratings for saltiness (r = 0.26, p = 0.033).

Conclusion

As most of the individual measures of taste function did not correlate with each other, with exception of the two threshold measures, we conclude that there are multiple perceptual phases of taste, with no single measure able to represent the sense of taste globally.

中文翻译：

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味觉功能的常用度量之间的关系。

背景

有五种常见的独立度量用于表征人的味觉功能：检测和识别阈值（DT和RT），原型味觉矫正剂的阈上强度等级，丙硫尿嘧啶（PROP）苦味强度和真菌状乳头（FP）数量。

方法

我们采用了所有五种方法来评估65名女性的味觉功能（21.5±4岁，BMI 22.3±2.8 kg / m ²）。计算了不同度量之间的皮尔逊相关系数。

结果

甜味，苦味，酸味和鲜味的DT和RT呈正相关（p  <0.05），而盐则没有。除鲜味（阈值强度和RT：r  = -0.32，p  = 0.009）以外，DT或RT与阈值以上的强度等级无关。FP数与味觉功能的任何测量均不相关。PROP苦味强度等级与任何味觉功能指标均不相关，除了盐度的最高阈值等级（r  = 0.26，p  = 0.033）。

结论

由于除了两个阈值量度外，大多数味觉功能的个体量度都不相互关联，因此我们得出结论，味觉有多个感知阶段，没有一个量度能整体代表味觉。