National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism

1 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Medicine

Psychophysical Tracking Method to Assess Taste Detection Thresholds in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: The Taste Detection Threshold (TDT) Test

Paule V. Joseph¹, Julie A. Mennella², Beverly J. Cowart², M. Yanina Pepino³

¹National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism, ²Monell Chemical Senses Center, ³Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Psychophysical tools measure the functionality of the taste system for both research and health assessment purposes. This paper describes a method to measure taste detection thresholds that can determine the lowest concentration of sucrose, sodium chloride, or monosodium glutamate that can be tasted by individuals as young as 6 years.