Gustatory reaction time to various sweeteners in human adults.

Reaction times to recognize the sweet taste of 12 sweeteners at various concentrations were measured in 48 human adults. The reaction time (T) decreased with increasing concentration (C) of each sweetener applied to the anterior dorsal tongue. The relationships between T and C, and T and logC were well described by a rectangular hyperbola formula for each of the 12 sweeteners. Reaction times to discriminate sweet taste quality between pairs of sweeteners were measured, then a similarity index was calculated. Factor analysis based on correlation coefficients between pairs of sweeteners which were obtained by the similarity indices has indicated classification of the sweeteners. Sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, sorbitol and aspartame tend to group together. Na-cyclamate and Na-saccharin form another group. DL-alanine, stevioside and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone are rather independent and do not belong to any group.