{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.08221119773210489, 'fraction_numerical': 0.06803685329553508, 'mean_word_length': 4.229629629629629, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 1, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Seasonal Variation of Taste Recognition Threshold in Young Females

The purpose of the present study was to reveal the seasonal effect on recognition thresholds of four primary taste modalities (sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). Twenty‐two healthy young females were participated in this study. All participants were performed taste recognition tests three times: in January 2014 (winter‐1), July 2014 (summer), and January 2015 (winter‐2). We assessed the taste threshold by using the Taste disk®, i.e., round shape filter papers soaked with sucrose (0.3, 2.5, 10, and 20 %), NaCl (0.3, 1.25, 5, and 10 %), tartaric acid (0.02, 0.2, 2, and 4 %), and quinine (0.001, 0.02, 0.1, and 0.5 %) solutions, and the Salsave®, i.e., stick type of filter papers containing NaCl (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 mg/cm2). In the test using the Taste disk®, the taste recognition thresholds did not change in most of the subjects for all tastants throughout the seasons. On the other hand, in the Salsave® test, the recognition threshold of salty taste decreased from winter‐1 to summer in 17 of 22 subjects, and increased from summer to winter‐2 in 16 of 22 subjects. The average threshold in summer (0.08 ± 0.01 mg/cm2) was significantly lower than that in winter‐1 (0.16 ± 0.02 mg/cm2) and winter‐2 (0.15 ± 0.02 mg/cm2) (p<0.05). These results suggested that salty taste can be more sensitively detected in summer than winter.