PSYCH 2E03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Cotton Swab, Dysgeusia, Xerostomia
10 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Can be tested for in a clinical setting using detection threshold tests. Injury to gustatory nerves: side effect of medications (e. g. cancer, depression) Hypogeusia: reduction in taste sensitivity: can be caused by dry mouth, smoking, illness (e. g. flu, diabetes) Dysgeusia: taste perceptions are distorted: e. g. sweet things taste salty, e. g. metallic taste for cancer patients. Ideally would want to be done in the absence of saliva: difficult to control for amount of saliva in person, should be controlled for temperature of tongue, present stimulus in exact same place, people have different sensitivities. Detection thresholds are lowest for bitter > sour > salty > sweet. Can be affected by: other tastants in a mixture (masking) Multiple tastes in mixture: temperature, location on the tongue. Where the taste is presented on tongue will have different detection thresholds: age (decreases with age) Especially with salty food: stimulation area. Stimulating the entire tongue is different if you only stimulate a certain part.
