The Effect of Taste Adaptation on Salivary Flow Rate and Salivary Sugar Clearance

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Abstract
To provide an objective measure of the rate of taste adaptation, we measured changes in the flow rate of parotid saliva from 12 subjects while a tastant was infused continuously into their mouths. The tastants employed were sucrose, sodium chloride, and citric acid, each at two different concentrations. With all stimuli, the higher concentration elicited significantly higher initial flow rates, which declined exponentially with time. The half-time for adaptation of flow rate was independent of the nature or concentration of the stimulus and averaged 11.3 sec, which suggests that adaptation follows a single exponential curve.