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Taste Identification in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions

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Abstract

Sensory issues are widely reported in Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Since taste perception is one of the least studied senses in ASC we explored taste identification in adults with ASC (12 males, 11 females) compared to control participants (14 males, 12 females). ‘Taste strips’ were used to measure taste identification overall, as well as bitter, sour, sweet and salty tastes. Results revealed lower taste scores overall in the ASC group, as well as for bitter, sour and sweet tastes. Salty taste scores did not differ between the groups. Examining error types showed that adults with ASC more often misidentified a taste as salty or as no taste. Future studies should investigate underlying mechanisms of taste identification difficulties in ASC.

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Notes

  1. The MANCOVA was repeated excluding participants who were on medication. Adults with ASC showed lower taste scores (Pillai’s trace F (5,32) = 0.24, p = 0.05). Separate univariate ANOVAs showed lower taste scores overall in the ASC group (F (1) = 11.54, p < 0.002), as well as for bitter taste (F (1) = 4.62, p = 0.007), sour tastes (F (1) = 3.41, p = 0.02) and sweet tastes (F (1) = 3.51, p = 0.05). However, salty taste accuracy did not differ between the groups (F (1) = 1.85, p = 0.08).

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Acknowledgments

TT was supported by the Pinsent Darwin Trust and Autistica during the period of this work. SBC was supported by the MRC UK. We are grateful to the participants for their generous cooperation and to Bonnie Auyeung, Jillian Sullivan and Bhismadev Chakrabarti for valuable discussions. This work was conducted in association with the NIHR CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this paper report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, 18 b Trumpington Road, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK

    T. Tavassoli & S. Baron-Cohen

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  1. T. Tavassoli
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  2. S. Baron-Cohen
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Correspondence to T. Tavassoli.

Additional information

This work was conducted in association with the NIHR CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

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Tavassoli, T., Baron-Cohen, S. Taste Identification in Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1419–1424 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1377-8

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