An Electromyography-Based System for Measuring the Flavor Detection Time in Healthy Adults

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a system to measure the flavor detection time for chewed solid and semi-solid foods. Twelve healthy young adults (seven males and five females) were asked to chew gummy candies with three different fruit flavors (grape, lemon, and pineapple) in a random order while their masseter activities were recorded by surface electromyograms on their habitual working and non-working sides. The participants were also asked to press a button as soon as possible with their preferred hand once they detected the flavor. The time interval between the start of chewing and the button press was measured; the start of chewing was defined as the start of a burst in the masseter electromyogram on the habitual working side. The average interval ranged from 2.82 s (lemon in males) to 4.63 s (grape in males); no significant differences were found between the three tested gummy candies or between the sexes of the participants. The present system can perform the measurements of the following two conventional measurement systems: 1) simple reaction time task for the taste and olfactory stimuli of fluids and vapors, respectively, and 2) time-intensity analysis of the flavor from solid and semi-solid foods, which does not generally consider the flavor detection time.