[Objective examination of taste in man by measuring gustatory evoked potentials]

Taste is an indispensable sense as well as olfaction to spend a tasteful life. The objective method of examining taste has not yet been established. Previous attempts to get gustatory evoked potentials (GEPs) in men and animals failed by contaminating artifacts. Solving this problem, the following developments were done. 1) Avoiding tactile artifacts, the tongue was rinsed constantly with distilled water. 2) By recording and averaging the galvanic skin response (GSR) at the same time, its influence on GEPs was compensated. 3) For proper averaging by computer, conditions of precise onset, duration of stimulus, the shortest stimulus rise and fall times were fulfilled by magnetic valve system. The new gustometer is expected to be one of the standard objective methods of examining taste in clinical practice.