The Influence of Age and Oral Health on Taste Perception in Older Adults: A Case-Control Study

Declining gustatory function, nutrition, and oral health are important elements of health in older adults that can affect the aging process. The aim of the present work was to investigate the effect of age and oral status on taste discrimination in two different groups of elderly subjects living either in an Italian residential institution (TG) or in the community (CG). A total of 90 subjects were enrolled in the study (58 CG vs. 32 TG). Masticatory performance (MP) was assessed using the two-color mixing ability test. Taste function was evaluated using cotton pads soaked with six taste stimuli (salty, acid, sweet, bitter, fat and water). A positive correlation between age and missing teeth (r = 0.51, C.I. [0.33; 0.65], p < 0.0001), and a negative correlation between age and MP (r = −0.39, C.I. [−0.56; −0.20], p < 0.001) were found. Moreover, significant differences for salty taste, between TG and CG were detected (p < 0.05). Significant differences in bitter taste sensitivity between subjects wearing removable and non-removable prosthesis were also determined (p < 0.05). In addition, significant gender differences and between males in TG and CG were identified (p < 0.05). The best understanding of the relationship between MP, taste sensitivity, and nutritional factors is a necessary criterion for the development of new therapeutic strategies to address more effectively the problems associated with malnutrition in elderly subjects.

What Drives the Gender Wage Gap? Examining the Roles of Sorting, Productivity Differences, Bargaining and Discrimination

As in other OECD countries, women in New Zealand earn substantially less than men with similar observable characteristics. In this paper, we use fifteen years of linked employer-employee data to examine different explanations for this gender wage gap. We find an overall gender wage gap between 20 and 28 percent, of which gender differences in sorting across occupations explain 9, across industries 16 to 19, and across firms 5 to 9 percent, respectively. The remaining within-firm gender wage gap is still between 13 and 17 percent. Around 5 percentage points of this are explained by women being less willing to bargain or less successful at bargaining to capture firm-specific rents. Gender differences in productivity also explain at most 4.5 percentage points of this remaining gap. These results suggest that taste discrimination is also important for explaining why women are paid less than their relative contribution to firm output. Across-industry and over-time variation in the gender wage-productivity gap further support this conclusion.

Effect of duration from lingual nerve injury to undergoing microneurosurgery on improving sensory and taste functions: retrospective study

Background The prognosis of recovery following microneurosurgery for injured lingual nerves varies among individual cases. This study aimed to investigate if recovery ratios of sensory and taste functions are improved by the microneurosurgery within 6 months after lingual nerve injury. Methods We retrospectively assessed 70 patients who underwent microneurosurgery at the Wakayama Medical University Hospital for lingual nerve injuries between July 2004 and December 2016. Sensory and taste functions in lingual nerves were preoperatively evaluated using a static two-point discrimination test, an intact superficial pain/tactile sensation test, and a taste discrimination test. They were evaluated again at 12 and at 24 months postoperatively. The abundance ratio of Schwann cells in the excised traumatic neuromas was analyzed with ImageJ software following immunohistochemistry with anti S-100β antibody. Results In early cases (microneurosurgery within 6 months after the injury), recovery ratios of sensory and taste functions were not significantly different at 24 months after microneurosurgery compared with later cases (microneurosurgery more than 6 months after the injury). Meanwhile, the ratio of patients with taste recovery within 12 months after microneurosurgery was significantly decreased in late cases compared with early cases. The abundance ratio of Schwann cells in traumatic neuroma was also significantly lower in later cases. Conclusion Microneurosurgery more than 6 months after lingual nerve injury did not lead to decreased recovery ratio of sensory and taste functions, but it did lead to prolonged recovery of taste. This delay may be associated with a decrease in the abundance ratio of Schwann cells in traumatic neuromas.

Neoklasyczne teorie dyskryminacji w warunkach konkurencji doskonałej — analiza krytyczna

Neoclassical theories of discrimination under conditions of perfect competition — critical analysisThe goal of this article is to analyze the neoclassical theories of discrimination in perfectly competitive labor markets. Based on the conducted considerations, the taste discrimination model, as well as the theory of human capital, demonstrated the lack of validity of these theories over a long period of time. In the short term, however, self-selection contracts or masking curtains seem to be a good solution. Despite this, the period of motherhood, which can be considered one of the most important discrimination factors, remains an unsolved problem.

Ethnic Differences in Labour Market Outcomes—The Role of Language-Based Discrimination

Host country language proficiency has been shown to account for ethnic differences in labour market outcomes. Prior studies generally assume that language skills represent a form of human capital, affecting employees’ productivity. However, language proficiency may also be associated with discrimination. Lower language proficiency may elicit distaste for certain ethnic groups, as it is a prominent reminder of the respective origin. When this reminder vanishes as language skills rise, group-specific distaste should also reduce. Employers may thus not only value language skills in terms of productivity but also factor in less group-specific distaste when evaluating immigrant jobseekers with high-language skills. Moreover, if employers lack information on competences that are hard to observe, high-language proficiency may prevent the application of adverse ethnic beliefs. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), I examine whether language skills affect crucial indicators of labour market success differently for groups that vary with respect to the level of distaste associated with them. I also investigate whether this effect is conditional on the amount of information available to employers. Findings indicate group-specific returns to higher-language proficiency, irrespective of the available information. This might suggest that, in addition to affecting employees’ productivity, language proficiency may also be associated with taste discrimination for certain ethnic groups.

Delta activity encodes taste information in the human brain

The categorization of food via sensing nutrients or toxins is crucial to the survival of any organism. On ingestion, rapid responses within the gustatory system are required to identify the oral stimulus to guide immediate behaviour (swallowing or expulsion). The way in which the human brain accomplishes this task has so far remained unclear. Using multivariate analysis of 64-channel scalp EEG recordings obtained from 16 volunteers during tasting salty, sweet, sour, or bitter solutions, we found that activity in the delta-frequency range (1-4 Hz; delta power and phase) has information about taste identity in the human brain, with discriminable response patterns at the single-trial level within 130 ms of tasting. Importantly, the latencies of these response patterns predicted the point in time at which participants indicated detection of a taste by pressing a button. Furthermore, taste pattern discrimination was independent of motor-related activation and other taste features such as intensity and valence. On comparison with our previous findings from a passive (delayed) taste-discrimination task (Crouzet et al., 2015), taste-specific neural representations emerged earlier during this active (speeded) taste-detection task, suggesting a goal-dependent flexibility in gustatory response coding. Together, these findings provide the first evidence of a role of delta activity in taste-information coding in humans. Crucially, these neuronal response patterns can be linked to the speed of simple gustatory perceptual decisions, a vital performance index of nutrient sensing.