Yeomans Martin R, Vi Chi, Mohammed Narmeen, Armitage Rhiannon M
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK.
Physiol Behav. 2022 Mar 15;246:113702. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113702. Epub 2022 Jan 10.
Past research has identified distinct phenotypic differences in responses to sweet taste, although the origins of these differences remain unclear. One possibility is that these individual differences in sweet-liking are a manifestation of the more widely known differences in sensitivity to the bitter tastant 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), which has been related to wider differences in food liking and preference. However, previous studies exploring the relationship between sweet-liking and PROP-tasting have had mixed outcomes. This is possibly due to older studies using a more simplistic dichotic characterisation of sweet likers, whereas recent research suggests three sweet-liking phenotypes (extreme sweet likers, ESL; moderate sweet likers, MSL; and sweet dislikers, SD). To re-assess how sweet-liking and PROP tasting are inter-related, 236 volunteers evaluated their liking for 1.0 M sucrose and the intensity of three concentrations of each NaCl and PROP. Using three different methods for classifying PROP taster status, our analysis confirmed that all three sweet-liking phenotypes were represented in all three PROP taster groups (super-tasters, ST; medium tasters, MT; and non-tasters, NT), but relatively few ESL were classified as ST, or SD as NT. Overall, these data suggest that while PROP tasting and sweet-liking are not causally related, the SD phenotype may partly be explained by a broader tendency for anhedonia.
过去的研究已经确定了对甜味反应的明显表型差异，尽管这些差异的起源尚不清楚。一种可能性是，这些对甜味喜好的个体差异是对苦味剂6-正丙基硫氧嘧啶（PROP）更广泛知晓的敏感性差异的一种表现，PROP敏感性差异与食物喜好和偏好的更广泛差异有关。然而，先前探索甜味喜好与PROP味觉之间关系的研究结果不一。这可能是由于早期研究对甜味喜好者使用了更简单的二分法描述，而最近的研究表明存在三种甜味喜好表型（极端甜味喜好者，ESL；中度甜味喜好者，MSL；以及甜味厌恶者，SD）。为了重新评估甜味喜好与PROP味觉之间的相互关系，236名志愿者评估了他们对1.0M蔗糖的喜好程度以及每种NaCl和PROP三种浓度的强度。使用三种不同的方法对PROP味觉者状态进行分类，我们的分析证实，所有三种甜味喜好表型在所有三个PROP味觉者组（超级味觉者，ST；中度味觉者，MT；和非味觉者，NT）中均有体现，但相对较少的ESL被归类为ST，或SD被归类为NT。总体而言，这些数据表明，虽然PROP味觉与甜味喜好没有因果关系，但SD表型可能部分由更广泛的快感缺失倾向来解释。
