Oral sensory changes in aging.

Perception of oral sensory intensity was assessed in healthy, community-dwelling men (n = 46) and women (n = 41) between 25 and 93 years of age. Cross-modal matches of distance to perceived intensity were obtained for five types of oral stimuli (sugar water, salt water, heated or chilled water, water thickened with methylcellulose, and local pressure on the dorsal tongue). Differences among stimulus types were observed for measures of response size (mean, median, maximum, and range of response distance and rate of increase with stimulus strength), but not measures of judgment quality, repeatability (ICC), and conformity to a linear rise with stimulus strength (r2). Age had no significant effect on any of the response measures for any stimulus type except pressure. All measures of response to lingual pressure except median size declined significantly with age. We conclude that (a) the various oral stimulus types elicit perceptions that differ in intensity but were judged with similar accuracy, and that (b) aging brings a specific decline in the perception of localized lingual pressure while both size and accuracy of intensity judgments are maintained for the other oral sensitivities tested.