A microcomputer (PC 9801/MS mouse) system to record and analyze time-intensity curves of sweetness

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Abstract
The sweetness of sugar, glucose, xylose, saccharin, aspartame, etc. was assessed by magnitude estimation, with sensory intensities of 5, 10 and 20 defined as being equivalent to 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0% concentrations of sugar in tap water. Sensory magnitude was determined as being the input through a ‘mouse’ to a microcomputer, PC 9801F2, which digitized the time into seconds, while intensity was expressed in terms of tenths of the sensory magnitude 1.0. The two-dimensional information was registered on floppy disc memory and retrieved to calculate the average time-intensity curves for each subject, or the average for several subjects. With this technique, it is easy to measure: (i) time of maximum intensity; (ii) height of maximum intensity; (iii) amount of adaptation; (iv) amount of after-taste; or (v) total amplitude (the sum of areas under the curve during and after stimulation). The subjects were seven male students. With a little training, they produced highly reliable curves for the replicates of a sweetener at one concentration. Multidimensional scaling of these curves did not disclose any clusterings of natural versus synthetic sweeteners.

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