Temporal dominance of sensations: A comparison between younger and older subjects for the perception of food texture

Abstract

Temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) is a technique that can be used to assess the sensory perception of food texture. The use of TDS is becoming more popular; however its value in older subjects is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the abilities of a young group and an older group to perform the TDS technique for the dynamic perception of texture. Twenty healthy subjects aged 55–70, and twenty healthy subjects aged 21–29, were selected according to strict criteria, where no subjects had dentures or had used the TDS technique before. Subjects were individually trained on the TDS technique with nine texture attributes. Both age groups generated TDS curves, where consensus on dominating attributes showed progression in the perception of food texture throughout the mastication sequence for both groups. Intra-subject variability in the TDS sequence was also similar between age groups. However, the older subjects took longer to select a first attribute, made fewer selections, and took longer to change attribute choice. Older subjects also showed higher dominance rates for the hard attribute, and lower dominance rates for the brittle, sticky and oily attributes.