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Substance and tongue-region specific loss in basic taste-quality identification in elderly adults

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Abstract

Physiological anorexia, decreased dietary variation, and weight loss associated with poor health are common conditions in the elderly population, with changes in chemosensory perception as important contributing causes. The present study of age-related taste loss aimed to investigate the question whether this loss is generalised and unspecific, or whether it exhibits differences in relation to certain tastants and/or differences in the topographical distribution of age-related loss. Impregnated “taste strips” with four concentrations of each of the tastants sucrose, NaCl, quinine-hydrochloride, and citric acid were applied on the tip, midlateral and posteromedial tongue regions to be identified as either sweet, salty, bitter, or sour by 30 young and 26 elderly adults. The results showed more pronounced age-related loss in identification for citric acid and quinine-hydrochloride than for sucrose and NaCl at both the tip and midlateral regions, but not at the posteromedial region where both age groups performed close to chance level. These findings may have implications for food preferences, and thus, the diets of elderly people.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Swedish ENT Research Fund. We are thankful to Stefan Kallert for producing the taste strips used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Steven Nordin & Eva Bringlöv

  2. Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, USA

    Steven Nordin

  3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Central Hospital, Skövde, Sweden

    Annika Brämerson & Mats Bende

  4. Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Erlangen–Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Gerd Kobal

  5. Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School (Technische Universitaet Dresden), Fetscherstr. 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany

    Thomas Hummel

Authors
  1. Steven Nordin
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  2. Annika Brämerson
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  3. Eva Bringlöv
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  4. Gerd Kobal
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  5. Thomas Hummel
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  6. Mats Bende
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Hummel.

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Nordin, S., Brämerson, A., Bringlöv, E. et al. Substance and tongue-region specific loss in basic taste-quality identification in elderly adults. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 264, 285–289 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-006-0169-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-006-0169-9

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