2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Influences of palatability on ingestion

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24792055
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Prosthetic dentistry
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	TANAKA Yasue 東北大学, 大学病院, 助教 (50613064)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	咀嚼 / 嚥下 / 味覚障害 / 嚥下障害
Research Abstract	This study was aimed to gain insights on how impaired taste sensation alters ingestive behavior. Gymnema sylvestre extract was applied to the tongue surface to create an experimentally induced taste disorder (EITD). The ingestive behavior and the rheological properties of the food bolus just before the first swallowing were compared between with and without EITD in six healthy volunteers who ingested a chocolate chip cookie. Although EITD made the bolus significantly less hard, less adhesive and more cohesive (Wilcoxon's rank-sum test; P < 0.001), and make the jaw gape of the chewing cycles just before the first swallowing smaller (P < 0.05) in all participants, its effect on the number of chewing cycles until swallowing was heterogeneous. The results suggest that EITD may alter ingestive behavior not through a reduction of the perceived tastes but through a reduction in the palatability and/or the intensity of the unpalatability of a food.