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24 - New Psychophysical Insights in Evaluating Genetic Variation in Taste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2009

By
Katharine Fast ,
Valerie B. Duffy  and
Linda M. Bartoshuk
Edited by
Catherine Rouby ,
Benoist Schaal ,
Danièle Dubois ,
Rémi Gervais  and
A. Holley
Katharine Fast
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA
Valerie B. Duffy
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, and School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut
Linda M. Bartoshuk
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA
Catherine Rouby
Affiliation:
Université Lyon I
Benoist Schaal
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Danièle Dubois
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Rémi Gervais
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
A. Holley
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
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Summary

How awful is “awful”? And is my “awful” the same as yours? The answers to these questions require comparing sensory or hedonic experiences across individuals, one of the most difficult tasks for psychophysicists. This chapter aims to trace the evolution of sensory scaling techniques intended to provide such comparisons, focusing on taste and using the discovery of taste blindness as a starting line. The past 70 years have been exciting times in psychophysics and have witnessed the development of methods useful for quantifying not only the oral impact of a stimulus but also its appeal.

For several generations, psychophysicists have been concerned about our ability to scale sensory experiences. A 1,000-Hz, 98-decibel blast is a 1,000-Hz, 98-decibel blast, but we recognize that it may sound far more intense to the department chair's grandson than to the department chair herself. We recognize this because we accept that a certain auditory deficit may accompany the blooming of wisdom, but how do we go about quantifying perceived sound intensity so that we can compare the experiences of the young and old directly? Our scale may start in silence, but if we have assimilated the idea that a given sound will be of different perceived intensities to different people, where do we anchor our scale besides the bottom? The perceived strength of a cleanser's odor works the same way: The same concentration of scent is added to each bottle at the factory, but the aroma may strike some as overpowering, while being barely detectable to others.

Type
Chapter
Information
Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition , pp. 391 - 407
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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References

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  • New Psychophysical Insights in Evaluating Genetic Variation in Taste
    • By Katharine Fast, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, Valerie B. Duffy, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, and School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Linda M. Bartoshuk, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA
  • Edited by Catherine Rouby, Université Lyon I, Benoist Schaal, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Danièle Dubois, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Rémi Gervais, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, A. Holley, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
  • Book: Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition
  • Online publication: 21 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511546389.033
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • New Psychophysical Insights in Evaluating Genetic Variation in Taste
    • By Katharine Fast, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, Valerie B. Duffy, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, and School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Linda M. Bartoshuk, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA
  • Edited by Catherine Rouby, Université Lyon I, Benoist Schaal, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Danièle Dubois, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Rémi Gervais, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, A. Holley, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
  • Book: Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition
  • Online publication: 21 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511546389.033
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • New Psychophysical Insights in Evaluating Genetic Variation in Taste
    • By Katharine Fast, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, Valerie B. Duffy, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA, and School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Linda M. Bartoshuk, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8041, USA
  • Edited by Catherine Rouby, Université Lyon I, Benoist Schaal, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Danièle Dubois, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Rémi Gervais, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, A. Holley, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
  • Book: Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition
  • Online publication: 21 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511546389.033
Available formats
×