Chemical SensesPub Date : 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjae023
Laura E Martin, Michael H Penner, Juyun Lim
{"title":"Taste of common prebiotic oligosaccharides: impact of molecular structure.","authors":"Laura E Martin, Michael H Penner, Juyun Lim","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjae023","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjae023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Prebiotic oligosaccharides are naturally occurring nondigestible carbohydrates with demonstrated health benefits. They are also a chemically diverse class of nutrients, offering an opportunity to investigate the impact of molecular structure on oligosaccharide taste perception. Accordingly, a relevant question is whether these compounds are detected by the human gustatory system, and if so, whether they elicit sweet or \"starchy\" taste. Here, in 3 psychophysical experiments, we investigated the taste perception of 3 commercially popular prebiotics [fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), xylooligosaccharides (XOS)] in highly pure form. Each of these classes of prebiotics differs in the type of glycosyl residue, and position and type of bond between those residues. In experiments I and II, participants were asked to discriminate a total of 9 stimuli [FOS, GOS, XOS; degree of polymerization (DP) of 2, 3, 4] prepared at 75 mM in the presence and absence of lactisole, a sweet receptor antagonist. We found that all 9 compounds were detectable (P < 0.05). We also found that GOS and XOS DP 4 were discriminable even with lactisole, suggesting that their detection was not via the canonical sweet receptor. Accordingly, in experiment III, the taste of GOS and XOS DP 4 were directly compared with that of MOS (maltooligosaccharides) DP 4-6, which has been reported to elicit \"starchy\" taste. We found that GOS and MOS were perceived similarly although narrowly discriminable, while XOS was easily discriminable from both GOS and MOS. The current findings suggest that the molecular structure of oligosaccharides impacts their taste perception in humans.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141185723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad051
Jörn Lötsch, Oskar Brosig, Jana Slobodova, Dario Kringel, Antje Haehner, Thomas Hummel
{"title":"Diagnosed and subjectively perceived long-term effects of COVID-19 infection on olfactory function assessed by supervised machine learning.","authors":"Jörn Lötsch, Oskar Brosig, Jana Slobodova, Dario Kringel, Antje Haehner, Thomas Hummel","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad051","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjad051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Loss of olfactory function is a typical acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptom, at least in early variants of SARS-CoV2. The time that has elapsed since the emergence of COVID-19 now allows for assessing the long-term prognosis of its olfactory impact. Participants (n = 722) of whom n = 464 reported having had COVID-19 dating back with a mode of 174 days were approached in a museum as a relatively unbiased environment. Olfactory function was diagnosed by assessing odor threshold and odor identification performance. Subjects also rated their actual olfactory function on an 11-point numerical scale [0,…10]. Neither the frequency of olfactory diagnostic categories nor olfactory test scores showed any COVID-19-related effects. Olfactory diagnostic categories (anosmia, hyposmia, or normosmia) were similarly distributed among former patients and controls (0.86%, 18.97%, and 80.17% for former patients and 1.17%, 17.51%, and 81.32% for controls). Former COVID-19 patients, however, showed differences in their subjective perception of their own olfactory function. The impact of this effect was substantial enough that supervised machine learning algorithms detected past COVID-19 infections in new subjects, based on reduced self-awareness of olfactory performance and parosmia, while the diagnosed olfactory function did not contribute any relevant information in this context. Based on diagnosed olfactory function, results suggest a positive prognosis for COVID-19-related olfactory loss in the long term. Traces of former infection are found in self-perceptions of olfaction, highlighting the importance of investigating the long-term effects of COVID-19 using reliable and validated diagnostic measures in olfactory testing.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139428432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjae026
{"title":"Correction to: Novel gurmarin-like peptides from Gymnema sylvestre and their interactions with the sweet taste receptor T1R2/T1R3.","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjae026","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjae026","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"49 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11190373/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141431533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2024-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjae031
Min Sung Kim, Christopher T Simons
{"title":"The role of TRPA1 and TRPV1 in the perception of astringency.","authors":"Min Sung Kim, Christopher T Simons","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjae031","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjae031","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Astringency, commonly described as a drying, roughening, and/or puckering sensation associated with polyphenol-rich foods affects their palatability. While the compounds eliciting astringency are known, its mechanism of action is debated. This study investigated the role of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels A1 and V1 in astringency perception. If TRP A1 or V1 have a functional role in astringency perception, then desensitizing these receptors should decrease perceived astringency. Thirty-seven panelists underwent unilateral lingual desensitization of TRP A1 and V1 channels using mustard oil and capsaicin, respectively. Panelists then evaluated four astringent stimuli: epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), tannic acid (TA), and potassium alum (Alum), via 2-AFC and intensity ratings. When TRPA1 receptors were desensitized on one half of the tongue via mustard oil, no significant differences were observed between the treated and untreated sides for both 2-AFC and intensity ratings. Similarly, when TRPV1 receptors were desensitized on one half of the tongue via capsaicin, no significant differences were observed between the treated and untreated sides for both 2-AFC and intensity ratings. These findings challenge the notion that TRP channels play a pivotal role in astringency perception.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142119112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2023-12-15DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad043
Mackenzie E Hannum, Riley J Koch, Vicente A Ramirez, Sarah S Marks, Aurora K Toskala, Riley D Herriman, Cailu Lin, Paule V Joseph, Danielle R Reed
{"title":"Taste loss as a distinct symptom of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Mackenzie E Hannum, Riley J Koch, Vicente A Ramirez, Sarah S Marks, Aurora K Toskala, Riley D Herriman, Cailu Lin, Paule V Joseph, Danielle R Reed","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjad043","url":null,"abstract":"Chemosensory scientists have been skeptical that reports of COVID-19 taste loss are genuine, in part because before COVID-19 taste loss was rare and often confused with smell loss. Therefore, to establish the predicted prevalence rate of taste loss in COVID-19 patients, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 376 papers published in 2020–2021, with 235 meeting all inclusion criteria. Drawing on previous studies and guided by early meta-analyses, we explored how methodological differences (direct vs. self-report measures) may affect these estimates. We hypothesized that direct measures of taste are at least as sensitive as those obtained by self-report and that the preponderance of evidence confirms taste loss is a symptom of COVID-19. The meta-analysis showed that, among 138,015 COVID-19-positive patients, 36.62% reported taste dysfunction (95% confidence interval: 33.02%–40.39%), and the prevalence estimates were slightly but not significantly higher from studies using direct (n = 15) versus self-report (n = 220) methodologies (Q = 1.73, df = 1, P = 0.1889). Generally, males reported lower rates of taste loss than did females, and taste loss was highest among middle-aged adults. Thus, taste loss is likely a bona fide symptom of COVID-19, meriting further research into the most appropriate direct methods to measure it and its underlying mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138692784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2023-12-13DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad050
Eva Drnovsek, Maria Rommel, Antonie Louise Bierling, Alexander Croy, Ilona Croy, Thomas Hummel
{"title":"An olfactory perceptual fingerprint in people with olfactory dysfunction due to COVID-19","authors":"Eva Drnovsek, Maria Rommel, Antonie Louise Bierling, Alexander Croy, Ilona Croy, Thomas Hummel","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjad050","url":null,"abstract":"The sense of smell is based on sensory detection of the molecule(s), which is then further perceptually interpreted. A possible measure of olfactory perception is an odor independent olfactory perceptual fingerprint (OPF) defined by Snitz et al. We aimed to investigate, whether OPF can distinguish patients with olfactory dysfunction due to COVID-19 from controls and which perceptual descriptors are important for that separation. Our study included 99 healthy controls and 41 patients. They rated ten odors using eight descriptors 'pleasant', 'intense', 'familiar', 'warm', 'cold', 'irritating', ‘edible', and ‘disgusting'. An unsupervised machine learning method, hierarchical cluster analysis, showed that OPF can distinguish patients from controls with accuracy of 83%, sensitivity of 51%, and specificity of 96%. Furthermore, a supervised machine learning method, random forest classifier, showed that OPF can distinguish patients and controls in the testing dataset with accuracy of 86%, sensitivity of 64%, and specificity of 96%. Principal component analysis and random forest classifier showed that familiarity and intensity were the key qualities to explain the variance of the data. In conclusion, people with COVID-related olfactory dysfunction have a fundamentally different olfactory perception.","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"264 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138692543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad020
Ha Nguyen, Javier Albayay, Richard Höchenberger, Surabhi Bhutani, Sanne Boesveldt, Niko A Busch, Ilja Croijmans, Keiland W Cooper, Jasper H B de Groot, Michael C Farruggia, Alexander W Fjaeldstad, John E Hayes, Thomas Hummel, Paule V Joseph, Tatiana K Laktionova, Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Maria G Veldhuizen, Vera V Voznessenskaya, Valentina Parma, M Yanina Pepino, Kathrin Ohla
{"title":"Covid-19 affects taste independent of taste-smell confusions: results from a combined chemosensory home test and online survey from a large global cohort.","authors":"Ha Nguyen, Javier Albayay, Richard Höchenberger, Surabhi Bhutani, Sanne Boesveldt, Niko A Busch, Ilja Croijmans, Keiland W Cooper, Jasper H B de Groot, Michael C Farruggia, Alexander W Fjaeldstad, John E Hayes, Thomas Hummel, Paule V Joseph, Tatiana K Laktionova, Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Maria G Veldhuizen, Vera V Voznessenskaya, Valentina Parma, M Yanina Pepino, Kathrin Ohla","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad020","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjad020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People often confuse smell loss with taste loss, so it is unclear how much gustatory function is reduced in patients self-reporting taste loss. Our pre-registered cross-sectional study design included an online survey in 12 languages with instructions for self-administering chemosensory tests with 10 household items. Between June 2020 and March 2021, 10,953 individuals participated. Of these, 5,225 self-reported a respiratory illness and were grouped based on their reported COVID test results: COVID-positive (COVID+, N = 3,356), COVID-negative (COVID-, N = 602), and COVID unknown for those waiting for a test result (COVID?, N = 1,267). The participants who reported no respiratory illness were grouped by symptoms: sudden smell/taste changes (STC, N = 4,445), other symptoms excluding smell or taste changes (OthS, N = 832), and no symptoms (NoS, N = 416). Taste, smell, and oral irritation intensities and self-assessed abilities were rated on visual analog scales. Compared to the NoS group, COVID+ was associated with a 21% reduction in taste (95% confidence interval (CI): 15-28%), 47% in smell (95% CI: 37-56%), and 17% in oral irritation (95% CI: 10-25%) intensity. There were medium to strong correlations between perceived intensities and self-reported abilities (r = 0.84 for smell, r = 0.68 for taste, and r = 0.37 for oral irritation). Our study demonstrates that COVID-19-positive individuals report taste dysfunction when self-tested with stimuli that have little to none olfactory components. Assessing the smell and taste intensity of household items is a promising, cost-effective screening tool that complements self-reports and may help to disentangle taste loss from smell loss. However, it does not replace standardized validated psychophysical tests.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"48 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10396355/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10177931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad031
Shashwat Damani, Michael H Penner, Juyun Lim
{"title":"Taste perception of oligosaccharides derived from pullulan.","authors":"Shashwat Damani, Michael H Penner, Juyun Lim","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad031","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chemse/bjad031","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent studies indicate that humans can taste starch hydrolysis products (i.e. maltooligosaccharides; MOS). However, the structural specificity of oligosaccharides that elicit such perception is not known. This study investigated taste perception of pullulan-derived oligosaccharides (PDOS) that are structurally similar to MOS, but differ in that every third glycosidic linkage in PDOS is α-1,6, rather than α-1,4. Three food-grade PDOS stimuli were produced by limited-enzyme hydrolysis of pullulan. The resulting products were stimuli with degree of polymerization (DP) of 3, 6, and 9. Subjects discriminated all 3 stimuli from blanks at a significant level (P < 0.00001) in the absence of lactisole, a sweet taste inhibitor. In the presence of lactisole, the subjects could not detect DP 3 at a significant level (P > 0.05), but were able to detect DP 6 and 9 (P < 0.005), although the degree of detectability dropped significantly (P < 0.05). In a follow-up qualitative study, subjects made the target stimuli and glucose into 2 groups (glucose/DP 3 vs. DP 6/DP 9) and characterized both groups as mostly \"sweet\" with having different sweetness intensity. With lactisole, they described glucose and DP 3 as \"taste like blank\" (lactisole water) and found it challenging to describe DP 6 and 9 stimuli due to their subtle nature. These results suggest that taste perception of PDOS primarily depends on the sweet taste receptor, although they may elicit other sensory attributes; this is strikingly different from the reported taste of MOS. The potential impact of structural configuration on taste perception is further discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"48 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10473447/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10522479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Respiratory response to an odor throughout development in rats.","authors":"Julie Boulanger-Bertolus, Emmanuelle Courtiol, Nathalie Buonviso, Anne-Marie Mouly","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjad006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Odor-induced sniffing has proven to be a useful behavioral readout for assessing olfactory performance in adult rats. However, little is known about how the respiratory response changes throughout ontogeny. Thus, this study aimed at characterizing respiratory response to an odor in rats using paradigms suitable to infants, juveniles, and adults. We first analyzed the respiratory response to a neutral, novel odor. Then the value of the odor was changed either through its repeated presentation (odor habituation), or its association with a foot-shock (odor fear). In the habituation task, we found that the first presentation of the novel odor induced a clear sniffing response at all 3 ages, but the peak respiratory frequency was higher in adults than in juveniles and infants. When the odor was presented repeatedly, the sniffing response gradually faded and the younger the animal, the faster the fading of the response. In the fear conditioning task, the odor induced an increase in respiratory rate that persisted until the end of the session in adults and infants, but not in juveniles. In another group for which the odor was explicitly unpaired with the foot-shock, the respiratory response to the odor did not last as long over the session than in the paired condition at all 3 ages. Finally, we observed that shock delivery induced a similar respiratory response at the 3 investigated ages in the paired and unpaired conditions. Collectively, these data show that the respiratory response constitutes a faithful index to assess rat's olfactory abilities throughout ontogeny.</p>","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"48 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9843477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chemical SensesPub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjad041
{"title":"XXXIIIth Annual Meeting of the European Chemoreception Research Organization, ECRO 2023, “Diverse Flavors” Van der Valk Hotel Nijmegen Lent, The Netherlands, 18 - 21 September 2023","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/chemse/bjad041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjad041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9771,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Senses","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135559747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}