High resolution time-intensity recording with synchronized solution delivery system for the human dynamic taste perception

Background: Time-intensity sensory evaluation of human taste perception is useful to know the feedback of a taste stimulus from tongue. However, it has not been profiled together with reaction time under the constant stimulating tongue in high time resolution.

New method: We first made intra-oral device to deliver taste solution to anterior, lateral and posterior tongue in standardized condition. Second, we developed a time-intensity sensory evaluation meter linked to synchronized taste solution delivery system. Time-intensity profiles were recorded in higher temporal resolution than our past study. Third, we analyzed the corrected taste quality reaction time from raw sensory perception data, and following sensory evaluation profile.

Results: The new method acquired taste sensory evaluation data with 1 ms temporal resolution and found the reaction timing was 908 ms, the corrected taste quality reaction time was 712 ms, maximum intensity was 3.47, and corrected time to reach maximum intensity was 1312 ms. The coefficient of variation ranged from 0.007 to 0.236 indicating low variance.

Comparison with existing methods: Time-intensity sensory evaluation in this study did not sacrifice the feature of raw data. The relative comparison of time-intensity sensory profile among subjects will be available in this system in future study, while it was still difficult to define the absolute value of reaction time.

Conclusions: Our method could gather real-time feedback for the time-intensity sensory evaluation of a taste stimulus under the standardized stimulating tongue. This could be useful for establishing database of time-intensity sensory profiles for comparison of delicate taste perceptions.