title: Impairments in the perception of odor-induced tastes and their relationship to impairments in taste perception.
abstract: Certain odors have tastelike qualities when sniffed. To the extent that these qualities are akin to real taste experiences, impairment in perception of odor-induced tastes should be accompanied by taste impairment, and vice versa. Twelve patients were selected with possible odor-induced taste impairments or general taste impairments via a screening test, along with a further 6 patients with a probable taste impairment (insular lesion). These 18 patients, along with 19 normal controls, completed a battery of odor, taste, visual control, and neuropsychological tests to assess impairments in odor-induced taste perception and general taste perception. Four patients had an odor-induced taste impairment and were also impaired on taste perception. A further analysis, using regression on the whole sample, indicated that taste impairments were associated with odor-induced taste abnormalities independent of other predictors. This pattern also held for the patient group alone. The insular patients also exhibited both taste and odor-induced taste impairments. This study is the first to demonstrate a relationship between impaired taste perception and the perception of odor-induced tastes and suggests that both may rely on certain common neural substrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. richard.stevenson@psy.mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: Laurie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Zoe C
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Thayer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012903:Smell; D013651:Taste Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*