STUDY ON THE SENSE OF TASTE IN A GROUP OF SICILIAN CENTENARIANS

The sense of taste was studied in a group of 20 centenarians from East ern Sicily, displaying a mini mental state examination (MMSE) score hi gher than 19. Control subjects were 20 adult (mean age 27.7 +/- 3.2 ye ars) and 20 elderly subjects (mean age 71.3 +/- 5.5 years). Although i t has been revealed that centenarians retain considerably the capacity to perceive tastes: they displayed statistically significant reductio ns (p < 0.001) in taste functions for sweet, sour, salty and bitter, a s compared to both the adult and elderly controls.