Monell Chemical Senses Center , 3500 Market Street , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania 19104 , United States.
J Agric Food Chem. 2019 Dec 18;67(50):13860-13869. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b03542. Epub 2019 Aug 13.
That the perceptual world of human taste is made up of four or five basic taste qualities is commonly accepted in the field of taste perception. Nevertheless, critics identify two issues that challenge this view. First, some argue that the term "basic tastes" cannot be precisely defined and, thus, is scientifically meaningless. Others accept the concept of basic tastes but believe there are many more. I argue here that it is most parsimonious to employ a perceptual definition of basic taste. I conclude that there are indeed four basic tastes (with a potential fifth) that constitute the building blocks of the human taste experience. Evidence cited includes historical writings from Chinese, Indian, and Greek cultures, ethnopharmacological research, and modern biological and psychological investigations. These perceptual "data" provide strong and convincing evidence, collected over thousands of years and from many different cultures, that the human perceptual world consists of the same basic taste qualities.
在味觉感知领域，人们普遍接受人类味觉感知的世界由四种或五种基本味觉组成。然而，批评者指出了两个挑战这一观点的问题。首先，一些人认为“基本味觉”一词无法被精确定义，因此在科学上没有意义。其他人则接受基本味觉的概念，但认为还有更多的味觉。我在这里认为，采用基本味觉的感知定义是最合理的。我的结论是，确实存在四种（可能还有第五种）基本味觉，它们构成了人类味觉体验的基础。引用的证据包括来自中国、印度和希腊文化的历史著作、民族药理学研究以及现代生物学和心理学研究。这些来自不同文化、历经数千年收集的感知“数据”提供了有力而令人信服的证据，证明人类的感知世界由相同的基本味觉组成。
