TASTE PSYCHOPHYSICS

这项研究的长期目标是将口味的变化联系起来 对食物偏好和食物消费的变化的能力。 每个人生来就是非品尝者、中等品尝者和超级品尝者 他们品尝一种叫做Prop(6-n-)的苦味物质的能力 丙基硫氧嘧啶)。非品尝者的味蕾和超级品尝者最少， 最多的。女性比男性更有可能成为超级品尝家。超级品尝者 从各种甜味和苦味中体验最强烈的味道 食物中存在的物质。青春期前女孩和绝经后女孩 女性对甜食的喜爱与她们品尝道具的能力有关； 那些品尝道具的人是最苦的(因此拥有最多 味蕾)最喜欢甜食。然而，对于正在生育的妇女来说， 多年来，情况正好相反：品尝道具的女人最苦，最讨厌 甜食最多。在老年女性的样本中，品尝能力更强 与营养指数相关的道具，表明患糖尿病的风险较低 心血管疾病(例如，体重指数较低)。这些例子表明 这一道具为味觉与营养的联系提供了一把重要的钥匙。其中一个原因 味觉和营养之间的强大联系 过去很难记录的是味觉病理的存在。这个 味觉可能会因常见的医学问题(耳朵感染、 头部轻微受伤)。提出了四个实验，利用新的 对这些病理的理解。首先，多样化的人口将是 对品尝道具的能力进行心理生理评估。数字和 他们的菌状乳头和味蕾的位置将被确定 用视频显微镜，任何味觉病理都会被识别出来。 其次，15名女性将接受两次月经周期的跟踪 对它们味觉系统的心理物理和解剖学研究以确定 品味能力和品味次数是否存在差异 花蕾可能与性激素的变化有关。第三, 大约100个家庭将被招募参加一个经典的 道具品鉴传承模式的家系研究。遗传模型 正在接受测试的是品尝并不完全占主导地位；不品尝的人有两个 隐性等位基因(TT)，中等品尝者携带一个显性等位基因(TT)，以及 超级品尝者携带两个显性等位基因(TT)。早期家族中的异常现象 研究(例如，品尝者父母所生的品尝者孩子)有望 与味觉病理有关(例如，不品尝的父母可能是 基因品尝者，但由于味觉损伤而作为非品尝者进行测试)。第四, 将向所有人发放食物偏好和消费问卷 实验1-3中的受试者。这将允许味觉遗传之间的联系 并在受试者中展示食物行为，在这些对象中， 味觉病理可以进行评估。此外，受试者的子集 将接受心理生理测试，以测试他们对简单味道的感知 解决办法。这将允许对食物不喜欢的假设进行测试 超高品味的育龄妇女是由于 感觉到的苦味和甜味的强度。一种口腔刺激物 也将接受测试。因为味蕾是由三叉神经支配的 携带刺激感的神经，感知到的刺激可能证明 作为味蕾数量变化的有用标记物。

The long term goal of this research is to relate variation in taste ability to variation in food preferences, and food consumption. Individuals are born as nontasters, medium tasters, and supertasters based on their ability to taste a bitter substance called PROP (6-n- propylthiouracil). Nontasters have the fewest taste buds and supertasters, the most. Women are more likely than men to be supertasters. Supertasters experience the most intense tastes from a variety of sweet and bitter substances present in foods. For prepubertal girls and post menopausal women, liking for sweets is related to their abilities to taste PROP; those who taste PROP to be the most bitter (and thus have the most tastebuds) like sweets the most. However, for women in their child bearing years, this reverses: women who taste PROP to be the most bitter, dislike sweets the most. In a sample of elderly women, greater ability to taste PROP associated with nutritional indexes that indicate lower risk for cardiovascular disease (e.g., lower body mass index). These examples show that PROP offers an important key to taste-nutrition links. One reason that the powerful connection between the sense of taste and nutrition has been hard to document in the past is the presence of taste pathology. The sense of taste can be altered by common medical problems (ear infections, mild head injuries). Four experiments are proposed that make use of new understanding of these pathologies. First, a diverse population will be assessed psychophysically for the ability to taste PROP. The number and location of their fungiform papillae and taste buds will be determined with videomicroscopy, and any taste pathologies will be identified. Second, 15 women will be followed through two menstrual cycles with psychophysical and anatomical studies of their taste systems to determine whether or not there are variations in taste ability and number of taste buds that can be related to variation in sex hormones. Third, approximately 100 families will be recruited to participate in a classic family study on the mode of inheritance of PROP tasting. The genetic model under test is that tasting is incompletely dominant; nontasters carry two recessive alleles (tt), medium tasters carry one dominant allele (Tt), and supertasters carry two dominant alleles (TT). Anomalies in earlier family studies (e.g., a taster child born to nontaster parents) are expected to be associated with taste pathology (e.g., a nontaster parent may be a genetic taster but test as a nontaster because of taste damage). Fourth, food preference and consumption questionnaires will be given to all subjects in experiments 1-3. This will permit links between taste genetics and food behavior to be demonstrated in subjects where the effects of taste pathology can be assessed. In addition, a subset of the subjects will be tested psychophysically for their perceptions of simple taste solutions. This will permit a test of the hypothesis that food dislikes in supertaster women of child bearing age are produced by the increases in the perceived intensities of bitter and sweet tastes. An oral irritant will also be tested. Since taste buds are innervated by the trigeminal nerve which carries irritation sensations, perceived irritation may prove to be a useful marker of changes in the number of taste buds.