A new gustometer for computer evaluation of taste responses in men and animals

Many previous attempts to acquire gustatory evoked potentials (GEPs) in both men and animals could not satisfy strict requirements on purely unimodal stimulation free of contaminating artifacts. Therefore we developed an advanced new gustometer, based on our previous experience on olfactory evoked potentials, especially on magnetic valves as also used in our "Erlangen olfactometer". Several newly constructed magnetic valves were tested; the best one (MV3) enables us to fulfill the following indispensable conditions for proper averaging by computer: precise onset and duration of stimulus, and shortest possible stimulus rise and fall times. Tactile artifacts were avoided by constant rinsing of the tongue with neutral water, in which the taste stimulus was embedded without turbulences. By recording and averaging the galvanic skin response (GSR) at the same time, its influence on GEPs was compensated. To evaluate successfully objective correlates of taste sensation in man is believed to be of great basic and clinical importance.