Abstract
This study measured and analyzed the amount of saliva and the taste threshold in response to lighting conditions (illuminance and color temperature) in different ethnic groups. Ten Japanese and ten Chinese healthy non-smoking male college students participated in the study. According to the results of repeated-measure ANOVA, the effect of illumination on the amount of saliva was significant in the Japanese students, and the Chinese students showed same tendencies regarding their saliva response, but not significant. On the other hand, the effect of illuminance on the taste threshold was considered significant in both these groups. Regarding the effect of color temperature, this study found significant changes in taste threshold only for Chinese. It is interesting to note that significant differences in the taste threshold regarding a salty taste were seen between the subject groups. The results of the present study indicated that the lighting condition could be considered an important parameter of taste sensation.
