Facial EMG as an indicator of palatability in humans

Two experiments were conducted to observe the sensory hedonic responses and facial EMG activities elicited from different tastes. In Experiment 1, 25 subjects tasted flavors of apple juice, Gatorade, water, soybean milk, and pickle juice. In Experiment 2, 21 subjects tasted a sugar solution, a salt...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physiology & behavior 1999-12, Vol.68 (1), p.31-35
Main Authors: Hu, Senqi, Player, Kathryn A, Mcchesney, Kathleen A, Dalistan, Maria D, Tyner, Catherine A, Scozzafava, Jason E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Electromyogram
Electromyography
Electrophysiology
Facial Expression
Facial Muscles - physiology
Female
Flavor
Food Preferences - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hedonics
Humans
Male
Palatability
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Taste
Taste - physiology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Two experiments were conducted to observe the sensory hedonic responses and facial EMG activities elicited from different tastes. In Experiment 1, 25 subjects tasted flavors of apple juice, Gatorade, water, soybean milk, and pickle juice. In Experiment 2, 21 subjects tasted a sugar solution, a salt solution, and water. Subjects' sensory hedonic reports and facial EMG activity in the levator labii superioris/alaeque nasi region were recorded in each experiment. The results from Experiment 1 showed that subjects reported significantly higher ratings of palatability to the apple juice, Gatorade, and water than to the soybean milk and pickle juice. The results from Experiment 2 indicated that the subjects reported significantly higher ratings of palatability to the water and sugar solution than to the salt solution. EMG recordings in both experiments showed that the negative hedonic sensations were associated with higher EMG activity in the levator labii muscle region, and that the positive hedonic sensations were associated with lower EMG activity in the same muscle region. It is concluded that facial EMG activity can be used as an indicator of palatability in humans.
ISSN:0031-9384
1873-507X
DOI:10.1016/S0031-9384(99)00143-2