Effects of Age, Sex, and Smoking on Electrical Taste Threshold

Abstract

Electrical taste thresholds from 249 otologically and neurologically “normal” subjects demonstrated the following: 1) The frequency distribution was highly skewed to the right, with a mode of 34.1 μA, a median of 42.3 μA, and a mean of 100.5 μA; 2) Normal electrical taste tliresholds ranged from 6 μA to 600 μA, which is too wide a range to be usable clinically; hence, a comparison between sides is required; 3) Females tended to have better electrical taste acuity than males; 4) In males, smoking caused a progressive deterioration of taste threshold with advancing age; 5) In nonsmokers and female smokers, aging produced a slight but not statistically significant decline in electrical taste acuity. These results show distinct parallels with results obtained with dilute solutions and suggest that sex, smoking habits, and possibly age may influence the normal limit of the clinical Electrogustometry (EGM) examination.