Taste of Sodium Chloride Solutions after Adaptation to Sodium Chloride: Implications for the "Water Taste"

Journal/Book: Reprinted from Science February - 28 1964 Vol. 143 No. 3609; pages 967-968. 1964;

Abstract: LINDA M. BARTOSHUK DONALD H. MCBURNEY AND CARL PFAFFMANN Physiology Department Brown University Providence Rhode Island Abstract. After adaptation of the human tongue to sodium chloride solutions subjects reported the taste quality of sodium chloride solutions both above and below the adapting concentration. The adapting solutions became tasteless; solutions weaker than the adapting concentration tasted sour or bitter and stronger solutions were reported as sweet or salty. The taste of both water and sodium chloride solutions is specific depending an prior adaptation. Whether or not water has a specific taste has concerned a number of investigators. Several have reported that some subjects have called distilled water bitter (1). On the other hand Oehrwall (2) described the taste of water as flat or insipid and suggested that the result was the absence of a taste when one was expected. Zotterman and Diamant (3) recording from the chorda tympani of human subjects found that water on the tongue abolished the electrophysiological activity of the taste fibers. They view these data as partial confirmation that the taste of water is the absence of some other taste. In the chorda tympani of the rat (4) which also shows a decrement in activity to water a given sodium chloride solution produces a characteristic maintained steady-state discharge of nerve impulses. ... schö

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