Decline in Taste and Odor Discrimination Abilities with Age, and Relationship between Gustation and Olfaction

• Published in: Chemical senses Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 331 - 337
• Main Authors: Kaneda, Hirotaka, Maeshima, Kozue, Goto, Naomi, Kobayakawa, Tatsu, Ayabe-Kanamura, Saho, Saito, Sachiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.06.2000; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aging - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Odorants; Olfaction. Taste; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Smell - physiology; Taste - physiology; Human; Perception threshold; Psychophysics; Mixture; Olfaction; Perception; Developmental stage; Taste; Stimulus discrimination; Odor; Age; Comparative study; Chemical stimulus
• ISSN: 0379-864X; 1464-3553
• DOI: 10.1093/chemse/25.3.331

It is important to learn about changes in both taste and odor perceptions with increasing age, because the taste of foods we encounter in our daily life is strongly affected by their smell. This study discusses the difference in qualitative taste and odor discrimination between the elderly and the young. Tastants and odorants used in this study were presented not as single stimuli but as a taste mixture (sucrose and tartaric acid) and an odor mixture (β-phenylethyl alcohol and γ-undecalactone). The results showed that quality discrimination abilities of the elderly subjects for both taste and odor were significantly lower than those of the young subjects, indicating a decline in quality discrimination abilities related to age. Also, a moderate but significant correlation was observed between the taste discrimination ability and the odor discrimination ability. We measured thresholds for single-taste and odor components in mixtures and compared them between the elderly and the young to investigate the cause for these findings.