Perception of trigeminal chemosensory qualities in the elderly

Authors
Citation
M. Laska, Perception of trigeminal chemosensory qualities in the elderly, CHEM SENSE, 26(6), 2001, pp. 681-689
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary,"Neurosciences & Behavoir
Journal title
CHEMICAL SENSES
ISSN journal
0379864X → ACNP
Volume
26
Issue
6
Year of publication
2001
Pages
681 - 689
Database
ISI
SICI code
0379-864X(200107)26:6<681:POTCQI>2.0.ZU;2-0
Abstract
One hundred healthy elderly subjects (65-88 years) were tested for their ab ility to: (i) assign verbal labels from a list of trigeminal type descripto rs to six odorants known to have a strong trigeminal component; (ii) discri minate between intensity-matched pairs of these odorants in an odd-ball par adigm. Their performance was compared with that of 100 young controls (23-3 6 years). Young controls judged menthol and cineole as distinctly cool and fresh, acetic cid as pungent and sour and acetone as pungent, but showed no clear descriptive profile for ethanol and propanol. The descriptive profil es given by the elderly subjects correlated significantly with those given by the young controls for all six odorants and thus indicate a high degree of conformity in trigeminal perception of chemosensory qualities between th e two age groups. In the odd-ball test the young controls correctly discrim inated an average of 8.0 of 9 stimulus pairs presented, with most mistakes occurring in response to pairs with a similar trigeminal profile. With an a verage of 6.4 of 9 items correct, the discrimination performance of the eld erly subjects was significantly poorer than that of the young controls but nevertheless significantly above chance at the group level with all 9 stimu lus pairs. These results suggest that the nasal trigeminal system may exper ience some degree of age-related impairment but still contributes considera bly to the perception and discrimination of chemosensory qualities in the e lderly.