Abstract
The purpose of this study was to elucidate the influence of two categories of auditory stimuli, pure tone and healing music, on sweet and salty gustatory sensitivity.
In experiment 1, 22 healthy subjects were recruited to determine the effect of pure tone on the gustatory thresholds of sweet and salty tastes. Pure tones at 10Hz, 4, 000 Hz, and 20, 000 Hz were used as auditory stimuli, and the intensity of the sounds was set to 50dB. The qualities of taste used in the experiment are sweet (sucrose) and salty (NaCl), and the concentration of each taste quality was 0.005M, 0.010M, 0.050M, and 0.100M. Each subject received auditory stimuli for 15 minutes, and the gustatory threshold was investigated using a whole-mouth gustatory test method.
In experiment 2, 22 healthy subjects were recruited to determine the effect of healing music on sweet and salty tastes intensity by utilizing visual analogue scaling (VAS). The music used as the auditory stimuli were as follows: (1) music CD 1 (Heartful Classics Mozart BEST), (2) music CD 2 (The Mozart Therapy), and (3) music CD 3 (Ultimate Sleeping CD). The gustatory threshold was investigated the same as it was in the experiment 1. Moreover, the subjective intensity of taste was scored by the VAS, and that score was evaluated as the sensitivity of gustation. In addition, the subjects were investigated regarding the effect of their music preference on their gustatory sensitivity.
In summary, pure tone auditory stimuli did not affect gustatory function. However, these results suggest that music, especially as a music preference, affects the sensitivity of sweet taste.
