Effect of stimulus presentation duration on gustatory reaction time

Abstract

Human simple reaction time to 3 sec and brief (200 and 400 msec) flow durations of aqueous 500 mM NaCl to the anterior dorsal tongue surface was measured for fifteen participants. Overall reaction time was 403 ± 30 msec (median ± 99% standard error of the median confidence interval). No statistically significant difference in reaction time as a function of flow duration was found. We conclude that 200 msec is ⩾ minimum human taste input time. This suggests that the phasic components of the gustatory neural response are sufficient for some human taste judgments.