Oral taste recognition in health volunteers.
BACKGROUND
Taste food recognition has an important role in the nutritional conditions and also allows protection of the organism integrity against foods potentially dangerous.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the presence of the selective taste regions on the tongue and also the palate participation in the oral taste definition.


METHODS
A standard tongue divided in six regions was exposed with the four basic tastes (sweet, salted, sour and bitter), 10 times each. Thirteen volunteers were studied from both side and 34 only from one side, performing 240 tests with opened mouth and 240 with closing mouth, just after tongue sapid stimulation. A second group, with 12 volunteers, had its taste recognition studied, with and without palate isolation, using silicone prosthesis (n = 120).


RESULTS
From results, chi-square (3x2) and (2x2), nonparametric independency test with P = 0.05 were obtained.


CONCLUSIONS
Anterior, medium and posterior regions of the tongue, at both sides, had the same taste discriminative capacity. Nevertheless, closed mouth increased immediate and late recognition capacity by palate participation. It was possible to admit that palate participation increase the sapid perception in the mouth, by recruitment of the palate taste receptors and also by fluid compression and its scattering over tongue surface.
Costa
Milton Melciades Barbosa
MM
Laboratory of Digestive Motility, Institute of Biomedical Science, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. mcosta@acd.ufrj.br
Santana
Eliane
E
Almeida
Juliana de
Jd
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010159:Palate / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult