Identifying Treatments for Taste and Smell Disorders: Gaps and Opportunities.

The chemical senses of taste and smell play a vital role in conveying information about ourselves and our environment. Tastes and smells can warn against danger and also contribute to the daily enjoyment of food, friends and family, and our surroundings. Over 12% of the US population is estimated to experience taste and smell (chemosensory) dysfunction.

Manipulation of sensory characteristics and volatile compounds in strawberry fruit through the use of isolated wavelengths of light.

Consumers consistently note that there is room for improvement in the flavor of commercial strawberries. Fruit flavor and aroma are affected by both genetics and environment. This work tests the hypothesis that sensory quality may be manipulated using postharvest light treatments.

What Aristotle didn't know about flavor.

Aristotle confused taste with flavor because he did not realize that chewing food releases odorants (volatiles) that rise up behind the palate and enter the nose from the rear (retronasal olfaction). When Aristotle bit into an apple, the flavor of the apple was perceptually localized to his mouth so he called it "taste." The correct attribution of flavor to the sense of olfaction was not made until 1812, and the term retronasal olfaction did not come into common use until 1984.

Flavor Alterations Associated with Miracle Fruit and Gymnema sylvestre.

Taste and flavor (retronasal olfaction) interact in the brain. The rules of that interaction are not well understood. This study uses 2 taste modifiers that alter sweet to examine the effects on flavors.

Farm to Sensory Lab: Taste of Blueberry Fruit by Children and Adults.

The average American child eats fewer fruits than recommended. Although taste is the primary motivator for food intake among children, little research has systematically measured children's liking of fruit and determined whether their preferences differ from adults. We phenotyped 49 children and their mothers to determine: (1) their liking of the taste of 3 blueberry cultivars ("Arcadia," "Keecrisp," and "Kestrel") from 2 harvests for which total soluble solids were determined using a handheld Brix refractometer; (2) the association between liking and blueberry sugar content; and (3) the most preferred level of fructose, one of the primary sugars in blueberry fruit.

Consumer Acceptability of Fresh-Market Muscadine Grapes.

The objective of this research was to investigate the acceptability of muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia) genotypes (cultivars and selections) and to correlate overall liking to other quality measurements to determine the main drivers of liking. Twenty-two genotypes grown at the Univ. of Georgia-Tifton Campus were evaluated.

Oral sensory nerve damage: Causes and consequences.

Oral sensations (i.e., taste, oral somatosensation, retronasal olfaction) are integrated into a composite sense of flavor, which guides dietary choices with long-term health impact.

Exploring Ethnic Differences in Taste Perception.

It is well known that nutritional intake can vary substantially as a function of demographic variables such as ethnicity and/or sex. Although a variety of factors are known to underlie the relationship between these demographic variables and nutritional intake, it is interesting to speculate that variation in food intake associated with ethnicity or sex may result, in part, from differences in the perceived taste of foods in these different populations. Thus, we initiated a study to evaluate taste responsiveness in different ethnic groups.

Identifying Breeding Priorities for Blueberry Flavor Using Biochemical, Sensory, and Genotype by Environment Analyses.

Breeding for a subjective goal such as flavor is challenging, as many blueberry cultivars are grown worldwide, and identifying breeding targets relating to blueberry flavor biochemistry that have a high degree of genetic control and low environmental variability are priorities. A variety of biochemical compounds and physical characters induce the sensory responses of taste, olfaction, and somatosensation, all of which interact to create what is perceived flavor. The goal of this study was to identify the flavor compounds with a larger genetic versus environmental component regulating their expression over an array of cultivars, locations, and years.

The Yale Craving Scale: Development and psychometric properties.

Introduction: The current study presents a psychometric evaluation of the Yale Craving Scale (YCS), a novel measure of craving for cigarettes and alcohol, respectively. The YCS is the first craving measure to use a generalized Labeled Magnitude Scale (gLMS) as the scoring format, which facilitates between-group comparisons of subjective craving and eliminates ceiling effects by assessing the full range of imaginable sensation intensities.

Methods: Psychometric evaluations of the YCS for use with cigarettes (YCS Smoking) and alcohol (YCS Drinking) included assessments of latent factor structure, internal consistency, ceiling effects, and test-criterion relationships.

Astringency is a trigeminal sensation that involves the activation of G protein-coupled signaling by phenolic compounds.

Astringency is an everyday sensory experience best described as a dry mouthfeel typically elicited by phenol-rich alimentary products like tea and wine. The neural correlates and cellular mechanisms of astringency perception are still not well understood. We explored taste and astringency perception in human subjects to study the contribution of the taste as well as of the trigeminal sensory system to astringency perception.

Mothers' taste perceptions and their preschool children's dental caries experiences.

Purpose: This study's purpose was to determine the caries experiences of preschool children whose mothers exhibited various genetic taste sensitivities to sweet foods, as reflected by their ability to taste the chemical 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP).

Methods: A convenience sample of 38 healthy two- to three-year-old preschool children and their mothers was selected. Data regarding maternal demographics and children's oral hygiene practices were obtained by questionnaires.

Strawberry flavor: diverse chemical compositions, a seasonal influence, and effects on sensory perception.

Fresh strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) are valued for their characteristic red color, juicy texture, distinct aroma, and sweet fruity flavor. In this study, genetic and environmentally induced variation is exploited to capture biochemically diverse strawberry fruit for metabolite profiling and consumer rating. Analyses identify fruit attributes influencing hedonics and sensory perception of strawberry fruit using a psychophysics approach.

Comparison of the hedonic general Labeled Magnitude Scale with the hedonic 9-point scale.

The hedonic 9-point scale was designed to compare palatability among different food items; however, it has also been used occasionally to compare individuals and groups. Such comparisons can be invalid because scale labels (for example, "like extremely") can denote systematically different hedonic intensities across some groups. Addressing this problem, the hedonic general Labeled Magnitude Scale (gLMS) frames affective experience in terms of the strongest imaginable liking/disliking of any kind, which can yield valid group comparisons of food palatability provided extreme hedonic experiences are unrelated to food.

The Measurement of Pleasure and Pain.

Pleasure and pain are among our most salient experiences, and we want to know how our pleasures and pains stack up against those of others. Older psychophysical methods fail to provide valid comparisons of pleasure and pain across individuals or groups. We are making progress in measurement, but we still have a ways to go.

Do polymorphisms in the TAS1R1 gene contribute to broader differences in human taste intensity?

The TAS1R genes encode heterodimeric receptors that mediate umami (hTAS1R1 + hTAS1R3) and sweet (hTAS1R2 + hTAS1R3) sensations. The question of interest for this study is if TAS1R1 variation associates with differences in overall taste intensity. We leveraged an existing database of adults (n = 92, primarily European American) to test associations between 2 TAS1R1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (intronic rs17492553, C/T and exonic rs34160967, G/A) and intensity of 4 prototypical tastants (NaCl, sucrose, citric acid, and quinine), applied regionally to fungiform and circumvallate loci, and sampled with the whole mouth.

A brief olfactory test for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may help reduce disability, enhance quality of life, and aid clinical trials. Portions of olfactory cortex are the initial sites of AD pathology and patients with AD often have more degeneration of their left than right hemisphere. Since the olfactory epithelium projects mainly to the ipsilateral olfactory cortex, patients with AD may demonstrate an asymmetrical (left greater than right) decrement of odor detection sensitivity.

Better fruits and vegetables through sensory analysis.

The flavor quality of many fresh fruits available to consumers today is generally believed to have deteriorated. While agricultural and postharvest practices certainly contribute to poor flavor, a large part of the problem is the challenge of breeding for and accurately assessing such a complex, multigenic trait in a natural product such as a fruit. Here we address the parallel challenges linked to measurement of flavor and human preferences, particularly as it applies to a complex, whole food in which many chemicals and sensations are synthesized into a distinct and recognizable flavor profile.

Gustation assessment using the NIH Toolbox.

The NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIH Toolbox) is a set of brief measures for the assessment of cognitive function, emotional health, motor function, and sensory function for use in clinical trials and in epidemiologic and longitudinal studies. Gustatory perception is assessed as 1 of 6 areas of sensory function. A team of 11 scientists with expertise in taste perception selected 2 gustatory measures, 1 of which can be used in young pediatric populations.

Sweet taste and chorda tympani transection alter capsaicin-induced lingual pain perception in adult human subjects.

Sweetness signals the nutritional value of food and may moreover be accompanied by a sensory suppression that leads to higher pain tolerance. This effect is well documented in infant rats and humans. However, it is still debated whether sensory suppression is also present in adult humans.

Variation in the gene TAS2R13 is associated with differences in alcohol consumption in patients with head and neck cancer.

Variation in responsiveness to bitter-tasting compounds has been associated with differences in alcohol consumption. One strong genetic determinant of variation in bitter taste sensitivity is alleles of the TAS2R gene family, which encode chemosensory receptors sensitive to a diverse array of natural and synthetic compounds. Members of the TAS2R family, when expressed in the gustatory system, function as bitter taste receptors.

Taste damage (otitis media, tonsillectomy and head and neck cancer), oral sensations and BMI.

Otitis media and tonsillectomy are associated with enhanced palatability of energy dense foods and with weight gain. Otitis media can damage the chorda tympani nerve (CN VII); tonsillectomy and head and neck radiation treatment can damage the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX). Both of these nerves function prominently in taste sensation.

The chemical interactions underlying tomato flavor preferences.

Although human perception of food flavors involves integration of multiple sensory inputs, the most salient sensations are taste and olfaction. Ortho- and retronasal olfaction are particularly crucial to flavor because they provide the qualitative diversity so important to identify safe versus dangerous foods. Historically, flavor research has prioritized aroma volatiles present at levels exceeding the orthonasally measured odor threshold, ignoring the variation in the rate at which odor intensities grow above threshold.

Otitis media and associations with overweight status in toddlers.

Introduction: Otitis media (OM) is a significant disease that affects nearly all children early in life. Recently, childhood overweight has become an epidemic. Past research has demonstrated that a history of OM is related to food preferences and overweight through proposed physiological mechanisms.

Allelic variation in TAS2R bitter receptor genes associates with variation in sensations from and ingestive behaviors toward common bitter beverages in adults.

The 25 human bitter receptors and their respective genes (TAS2Rs) contain unusually high levels of allelic variation, which may influence response to bitter compounds in the food supply. Phenotypes based on the perceived bitterness of single bitter compounds were first linked to food preference over 50 years ago. The most studied phenotype is propylthiouracil bitterness, which is mediated primarily by the TAS2R38 gene and possibly others.