Sweetness produced electrically on the tongue and its relation to taste theories

¹ Laboratory of Psychophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Electrical stimulation of the tongue under controlled conditions produces pure sensations of the four basic tastes. These basic tastes correspond to four kinds of papillae which are distinguished by differences in their anatomical structures, their frequency response curves, and the times required for the buildup of sensation, but which all have about the same chronaxie. Although these findings do not favor the cluster theory of taste perception, adaptation experiments indicate that they do not disagree with the microelectrode recordings of nervous discharges of taste fibers in the chorda tympani.

Submitted on March 2, 1964

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K Arvidson and U Friberg Human taste: response and taste bud number in fungiform papillae Science, August 15, 1980; 209(4458): 807 - 808. [Abstract] [PDF]