DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND ALTERATIONS IN SUCROSE TASTE PERCEPTION - COGNITIVE BIAS OR A TRUE CHANGE IN SENSITIVITY

Previous studies have reported elevated taste thresholds in depressed subjects, but those studies did not control for changes in response bi as. The current study used signal detection analyses to address this s hortcoming. Sucrose detection thresholds were measured (1) in subjects with high and low Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) scores who did not meet standard criteria for current Major Depressive Episode ( MDE); and (2) in subjects who did fulfil standard criteria for MDE. Su bjects with low HAM-D scores produced significantly more false alarms than the other two groups, but taste sensitivity, as indexed by d', di d not vary significantly across groups. These results suggest that cha nges in response bias underlie previously reported increases in sucros e taste thresholds in depressed subjects.