Introduction

Thermal taster status (TTS) is determined when the tongue is cooled or warmed, whereby thermal tasters (TT) experience a taste sensation while thermal nontasters (TnT) do not. The literature suggests that TT experience greater responsiveness (higher intensity ratings) to orosensory stimuli; however, small sample sizes and differences in classification schemes between studies confound our understanding of TTS. In addition, up to 50% of individuals (nonclassifiables, NC) have been excluded from previous studies and have yet to be characterized.

Methods

Raw responses to the thermal-elicitation procedure were used to determine the TTS of the same participants using four published classification schemes, and concordance between the schemes was examined using Fleiss’ kappa. Using a large convenience sample (n = 708), we tested for differences in orosensory (ANOVA) and temperature (Mann-Whitney U) responsiveness between TT, TnT, and NC.

Results

TT are more responsive than TnT to both orosensations and temperature changes, regardless of the classification method used despite only moderate concordance between the schemes. Overall, the orosensory and temperature responsiveness of NC is intermediate to that of TT and TnT. However, the responses of NC are not homogeneous and subgroups are identified.

Conclusions

The trend of TT being more responsive to orosensory and temperature stimuli is confirmed. The responsiveness patterns of NC subgroups suggest they are misclassified TT and TnT, and can be included in future studies examining thermal tasting.

Implications

TTS is an important source of individual differences in orosensory responsiveness, and our findings inform best practices for thermal elicitation and classification.

中文翻译：

---

用于确定热味状态的分类模式的检查和验证

介绍

热味觉者状态（TTS）是在舌头变冷或变暖时确定的，由此热味觉者（TT）体验到味觉，而热非味觉者（TnT）则没有。文献表明，TT 对口腔感觉刺激有更大的反应性（更高的强度等级）；然而，小样本量和研究之间分类方案的差异混淆了我们对 TTS 的理解。此外，多达 50% 的个体（不可分类，NC）已被排除在之前的研究之外，并且尚未被表征。

方法

对热引发程序的原始反应用于使用四个已发布的分类方案来确定相同参与者的 TTS，并使用 Fleiss' kappa 检查方案之间的一致性。使用大量方便样本 ( n  = 708)，我们测试了TT、TnT 和 NC 之间口腔感觉 (ANOVA) 和温度 (Mann-Whitney U ) 反应性的差异。

结果

无论使用哪种分类方法，TT 都比 TnT 对口腔感觉和温度变化更敏感，尽管这些方案之间只有中等程度的一致性。总体而言，NC 的口腔感觉和温度响应性介于 TT 和 TnT 之间。然而，NC 的反应并不均匀，并且已确定了亚组。

结论

TT 对口腔感觉和温度刺激更敏感的趋势已得到证实。 NC 亚组的反应模式表明它们被错误分类为 TT 和 TnT，并且可以纳入未来检查热味觉的研究中。

影响

TTS 是口感觉反应个体差异的重要来源，我们的研究结果为热诱导和分类的最佳实践提供了信息。