Eye Blink Responses to the Four Basic Taste Stimuli in Healthy Young Humans

Ichiro Ashida,Yuko Tamaki,Yozo Miyaoka

doi:10.4236/jbbs.2013.34038

Abstract

Taste stimuli can elicit facial responses, and the facial responses may be useful indexes of taste sensations. In this study, we propose that eye blinking is also elicited by taste stimuli and we examined eye blink responses in six healthy young adults. Low and high concentration solutions of the four basic taste qualities (sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness) and distilled water were delivered via a silicone tube. Facial responses were recorded by a video camera and eye blink responses were identified. The number of eye blinks in the 5 s following stimulation, and the latency and duration of the first eye blink, were quantified. High concentrations of sour and bitter solutions increased the number of eye blinks (195% and 227%, respectively; P P P

Highlights

The four basic taste qualities of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are widely accepted as the traditional forms of gustatory perception [1,2]
The number of eye blinks evoked by the low concentration taste solutions ranged from 103% (salty, Figure 1(b)) to 130% (sour, Figure 1(c)) of the number of eye blinks evoked by distilled water (DW)
The number of eye blinks evoked by the high concentration taste solutions ranged from 151% (salty, Figure 1(b)) to 227% (bitter, Figure 1(d)) of the number of eye blinks evoked by DW

Summary

Introduction

The four basic taste qualities of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are widely accepted as the traditional forms of gustatory perception [1,2]. This has been demonstrated by electrophysiological studies of the peripheral and central nervous systems of various mammalian species [3,4]. In addition to gustatory perception, taste stimuli applied to the human oral cavity can elicit reflex responses, including jaw and tongue movements and salivation [1,2, 6]. Over the past three decades, researchers have extended the findings of the pioneering neurohistological studies [7,8] and proposed neural pathways for these gustofacial responses [9]

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