[Changes in the threshold values of lingua throughout aging]

The filter-paper-disk method was employed for measuring the threshold values of four basic taste on lingua-tip with 308 healthy females aged 20-79. Taste substance were sequentially diluted with distilluted water (30 stages from 80.0 g/dl for sucrose, 30 stages from 30.0 g/dl for NaCl, 30 stages from 8.0 g/dl for sodium tartrate, 30 stages from 4.0 g/dl for HCl quinine). The result was as follows. A sensibility of gustation decreased rapidly in accordance with aging. A decrease of bitterness sensibility was most remarkably with aging, succeeded sourness, sweetness, saltyness. Also, a decrease of a gustation sensibility is beginning in early twenties, especially the sensitivity to a sweetness and sour taste decreased conspicuously from twenties to thirties.