Taste Flashes: Reaction Times, Intensity, and Quality

Abstract

Human simple reaction times and magnitude estimates of taste intensity increased as the duration of 500-millimolar sodium chloride or 2-millimolar saccharin sodium pulses lengthened from 100 to 1000 milliseconds. Responses to "What was the taste?" ranged from 94 to 100 percent "sweet" for saccharin and 68 to 83 percent "salty" for salt across all pulse durations when both substances were randomized with water pulses.