Paradoxically, bilateral transection of the chorda tympani nerve (CTX) raises the taste discrimination threshold for the free fatty acid, linoleic acid (LA), yet the chorda tympani nerve (CT) is unresponsive to lingual application of LA alone. LA may require a background of saliva to activate taste cells, since CTX decreases saliva production through denervation of the submaxillary and sublingu...

OBJECTIVE Preclinical studies indicate that dopaminergic transmission in the basal ganglia may be involved in processing of both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. Given this, the aim of the present study was to assess taste responses to sweet, bitter, sour, and salty substances in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS Rated intensity and pleasantness of filter paper discs soaked in s...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the olfactory/gustatory functions of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by smell/taste tests, and to determine if disease activity or medication might influence the olfactory/gustatory functions of patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS In total, 59 IBD patients (37 Crohn's disease (CD) and 22 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients) were studied using "Sniffin' sticks" ...

The relationship between taste acuity and food neophobia, food familiarity and liking has been studied in the context of a residential weight reduction session (WRS; mean duration: 10 months) in 39 obese adolescents. Taste acuity was assessed using recognition thresholds for sucrose, citric acid, sodium chloride and 6-n propylthiouracil (PROP) and supra-threshold perceived intensities for sucro...

The present study demonstrates that perithreshold temporal integration occurs in the human taste system across stimulus durations ranging from 200 to 1500 ms in a manner analogous to that seen in other major sensory systems. Thus, the notion that gustation is comparatively insensitive to temporal stimulus parameters at threshold levels is disproved. Chem. Senses 22: 171-175,1997.

The flowers of different plant species have diverse scents with varied chemical compositions. Hence, every floral scent does not uniformly affect insect feeding preferences. The blowfly, Phormia regina, is a nectar feeder, and when a fly feeds on flower nectar, its olfactory organs, antennae, and maxillary palps are exposed to the scent. Generally, feeding preference is influenced by food flavo...

Taste aversion studies have demonstrated that rats conditioned to avoid monosodium glutamate (MSG) with amiloride added to reduce the intensity of the sodium component of MSG taste, generalize this aversion to aspartic acid and to L-AP4, but not to ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists. That is, MSG, L-AP4 and aspartate have similar tastes to rats. However, conditioned taste aversion methods a...

Dear Editor, Bariatric surgery results in greater and lasting weight loss as well as reduces the severity of certain comorbidities.1 The limited literature which has studied taste perception following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG)2 hypothesises that the consequent taste dysfunction influences food preferences, which prevents postoperative overeating o...