Psychophysical Taste Assessment: Comparison Between Taste Strips and Cotton Taste Buds

Background: To develop a more practical screening test for gustatory function, without losing the sensitivity of taste strips, and to evaluate the effect of a learning phase in identification of tastants.

Methods: A total of 35 participants (25 female and 10 male, mean age of 34y) were enrolled and consecutively tested with the already established “taste strips” method, the newly proposed “cotton taste buds” method, and the “cotton taste buds” method with a preceding learning phase. For all different methods, the same tastants and concentration steps were used. The GustaF algorithm was used as a tool for whole mouth testing in a computer-randomized sequence.

Results: The newly proposed “cotton taste buds” method showed significantly higher scores compared to the “taste strips” method, both for total taste scores (P < .001), as for lateralized taste scores (P < .001). Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in the number of taste confusions made in the different dilution steps (P < .001) and a significant difference between the different taste confusions made (P < .001) in the “taste strips” method. Sweet is the only basic tastant which is rarely mistaken for a different taste. All participants preferred the “cotton taste buds” method. However, there was no difference between the “cotton taste buds” method and the “cotton taste buds” method with a preceding learning phase, showing objectively that a prelearning phase did not overcome the bias due to a lack of proper verbal descriptors of tastants.

Conclusion: “Cotton taste buds” seems a valid diagnostic tool for screening. Nevertheless, taste strips remain the golden standard for psychophysical taste assessment.