Introduction

The trigeminal system is a chemosensory system, next to smell and taste, allowing intranasal sensations such as freshness, spiciness, etc. The lateralization task is used to measure trigeminal sensitivity and consists in identifying the nostril stimulated by an odorous substance in a two-alternative forced-choice procedure. However, when performed in the standard method, this task takes almost 25 to 30 min to administer and only gives access to few information.

Methods

The aim of this pilot study was to compare two alternative methods of administering the lateralization task with the standard method in a group of 53 participants (41.6 years; 32 women). Specifically, we compared (1) the standard method of 40 constant stimuli with a duration of 500 ms, (2) a short version of 20 variable stimuli ranging from 200 to 600 ms (different duration method—DD), and (3) an automatic adaptive staircase method where the test adjusts the duration of stimulation according to the participant’s responses (adaptive duration method—AD).

Results

Based on the number of correct answers and the thresholds obtained with the automatic staircase method, the average scores for the two alternative methods correlate with the score at the standard method. In addition, both alternative methods are able to discriminate between participants with a high sensitivity and those with a lower sensitivity. Finally, the DD method is significantly shorter in terms of administration time than the other two methods.

Conclusion

This pilot study presents two novel methods to evaluate trigeminal sensitivity which each have a specific superiority over the established technique.

Implications

The DD method cuts testing time in half whereas the AD method provides threshold estimates for individual nostrils.

中文翻译：

---

改善三叉神经敏感性的评估：一项初步研究

介绍

三叉神经系统是一种化学感觉系统，除了气味和味道外，还可以使鼻内产生新鲜感，辣味等感觉。横向化任务用于测量三叉神经的敏感性，主要包括识别由两种或多种形式的有味物质刺激的鼻孔。强制选择程序。但是，以标准方法执行时，此任务几乎需要25到30分钟才能完成管理，并且只能访问很少的信息。

方法

这项试验性研究的目的是在53名参与者（41.6岁； 32名女性）中，比较两种管理偏侧化任务的替代方法与标准方法。具体来说，我们比较了（1）持续时间为500 ms的40种恒定刺激的标准方法，（2）介于200至600 ms范围内的20种可变刺激的简短版本（不同持续时间方法-DD）和（3）自动自适应阶梯法，其中测试会根据参与者的反应调整刺激的持续时间（自适应持续时间方法-AD）。

结果

根据正确答案的数量和自动阶梯方法获得的阈值，这两种替代方法的平均分数与标准方法的分数相关。另外，两种替代方法都能够区分具有高灵敏度的参与者和具有较低灵敏度的参与者。最后，DD法的给药时间明显短于其他两种方法。

结论

这项初步研究提出了两种新的方法来评估三叉神经敏感度，每种方法都比现有技术具有特定的优势。

含义

DD法将测试时间缩短了一半，而AD法则为各个鼻孔提供了阈值估计。