Background: Study results have shown that chronic exposure to cigarette smoke affects the taste function in humans. However, neither the quantitative impact on taste sensitivity nor the time-course of taste recovery on stopping smoking have been precisely examined.
Methods: The experimental design included 2 phases, (i) a case-control phase comparing the taste sensitivity level measured by Electrogustometric (EGM) thresholds from various parts of the tongue (locus) between smokers ( = 83) and non-smokers ( = 48), (ii) a follow-up study looking at the taste sensitivity recovery in smokers after smoking cessation ( = 24) and compared with non-smokers.
Results: Smokers exhibited significantly lower taste sensitivity than non-smokers - the higher the nicotine dependence (Fagerström scores), the lower the taste sensitivity. After smoking cessation, EGM thresholds decreased progressively, and reached the taste sensitivity range of non-smokers depending on locus and time. After 2 weeks a recovery could be observed on the 3 Tip and the 2 edge loci; the recovery in the posterior loci was complete after 9 weeks, and in the dorsal loci recovery was observed only after 2 months or more.
Conclusions: Smoking cessation does lead to a rapid recovery of taste sensitivity among smokers, with recovery time found to differ based on the sensitivity of loci of the tongue. The use of EGM could potentially be explored as a motivational tool for smoking cessation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12971-017-0120-4 | DOI Listing |
Food Res Int
February 2025
Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. Electronic address:
Currently, little is known about how complex carbohydrates (maltodextrins) with varying degrees of polymerisation (DP) and molecular branching interact with α-amylase in human saliva and the associated amounts and structures of generated reducing sugars. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate salivary α-amylase and the subsequent reducing sugars generated with complex carbohydrate stimuli. A secondary aim was to investigate reducing sugar generation and complex carbohydrate taste sensitivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Chem
January 2025
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, School of Food Engineering, State University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil. Electronic address:
Threshold determination forms an integral part of sensory and consumer studies applied for product control and development. The authors examined the potential of an impedimetric electronic tongue to discriminate basic tastes and consider limitations pertaining to the sensory evaluation process. Three samples at lower, medium, and higher concentration levels of basic taste compounds were prepared and subjected to consumer studies (n = 60) using the difference from-control (DFC) test.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Neurovascular Unit Research Group, Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu 41062, Republic of Korea.
In ephaptic coupling, physically adjacent neurons influence one another's activity via the electric fields they generate. To date, the molecular mechanisms that mediate and modulate ephaptic coupling's effects remain poorly understood. Here, we show that the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel lateralizes the potentially mutual ephaptic inhibition between gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Eat Disord
January 2025
Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Background: Individuals with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) self-report heightened sensitivity to taste and smell, but neither phenomenon has been systematically explored in the laboratory. We hypothesized that, compared to healthy controls (HC, n = 34), children, adolescents, and adults with full/subthreshold ARFID (n = 100; ages 9 to 23 years) would self-report heightened response to taste/smell stimuli and exhibit stronger bitter taste perception and heightened smell perception in performance-based tasks, and these differences would be especially prominent in those with the ARFID-sensory sensitivity presentation.
Method: We measured self-reported sensitivity to taste/smell with the adolescent/adult sensory profile (AASP).
BMC Cancer
January 2025
Patient Centered Solutions, IQVIA, Reading, UK.
Background: Despite approvals of new first-line immunotherapies for advanced/metastatic gastric cancer/gastroesophageal junction cancer (aGC/GEJC), patients' median survival is around 14 months and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is affected by disease-related symptoms and treatment-related side effects. Using a targeted literature review (TLR) and patient interviews, this study identified disease- and treatment-related concepts that are important to patients with aGC/GEJC and their HRQoL.
Methods: A TLR was conducted to identify primary qualitative studies from 2018 to 2021 on patients' experiences with aGC/GEJC.
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