Diamant, H. B. Oakley, L. Ström, C. Wells and Y. Zotterman. A comparison of neural and psychophysical responses to taste stimuli in man. Acta physiol. scand. 1965 64. 67–74. – Electrophysiological records of taste activity have been obtained from the chorda tympani nerve of otosclerotic patients. When possible, preoperative psychophysical responses to taste stimuli were also obtained. The summated chorda tympani discharge to 0.2 M NaCl adapts completely and the time required agrees with psychophysical reports. Psychophysical estimates of the sweetness of different sugars correspond closely with nerve response magnitudes. Gymnema extract abolishes both the sweet sensation and the nerve response to sweet tasting chemicals. The total sum of taste activity in the entire chorda tympani nerve appears to be an important determinant of the psychophysical responses. There are large individual differences in the relative size of the neural response to different taste stimuli. Responses to ethyl alcohol are described.

SUMMARY1. Recording the suimmated electrical response from the human chorda tympani in the middle ear provides data for a quantitative study of the relation between the neural activity and the strength of the stimulus applied to the tongue which can be compared with the relation between the subjective estimation and the stimulus strength.2. Full comparative data obtained from two patients showed a very high correlation between the functions describing the subjective and the neural response in relation to the strength of citric acid and sucrose solutions applied to the tongue. In a third patient the same high correlation was obtained for NaCl and citric acid.3. The good agreement between the individual neurophysiological experiments and the psychophysical group experiment favours the view that a fundamental congruity is found between neural activity and perceptual intensity.

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