ReviewPhysiology & behavior2011
Accumulating evidence supports a taste component for free fatty acids in humans.
Review in Physiology & behavior, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- Taste sensitivity in anorexia nervosa: A systematic review.The International journal of eating disorders · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- The role of lipolysis in human orosensory fat perception.Journal of lipid research · 2014Trial
- Fat taste sensitivity in women with obesity: transcriptomic analysis of fungiform papillae before and after bariatric surgery.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Article
- Validation of the Measurement of Beta-Hydroxybutyrate and Non-Esterified Fatty Acids in Bovine Saliva: A Pilot Report.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Nitrate supplementation affects taste by changing the oral metabolome and microbiome.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Salivary response of Geoffroy's spider monkeys (PeerJ · 2025Article
- Effect of Beta 2-Adrenergic Receptor Gly16Arg Polymorphism on Taste Preferences in Healthy Young Japanese Adults.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Novel impacts of saliva with regard to oral health.The Journal of prosthetic dentistry · 2022Review
- An update on the biological characteristics and functions of tuft cells in the gut.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- The tongue map and the spatial modulation of taste perception.Current research in food science · 2022Review
- Common variants in the CD36 gene are associated with dietary fat intake, high-fat food consumption and serum triglycerides in a cohort of Quebec adults.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2021Article
- The Tryptophan/Kynurenine Pathway: A Novel Cross-Talk between Nutritional Obesity, Bariatric Surgery and Taste of Fat.Nutrients · 2021Article
- Sex differences in fat taste responsiveness are modulated by estradiol.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2021Article
- Salivary proteome of a Neotropical primate: potential roles in host defense and oral food perception.PeerJ · 2020Article
- An improved method for examining fat taste.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2020Article
- Brain Imaging of Taste Perception in Obesity: a Review.Current nutrition reports · 2019Review
- Cerebral gustatory activation in response to free fatty acids using gustatory evoked potentials in humans.Journal of lipid research · 2019Article
- Therapeutic potential of ectopic olfactory and taste receptors.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2019Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The requisite criteria for what constitutes a taste primary have not been established. Recent advances in understanding of the mechanisms and functions of taste have prompted suggestions for an expanded list of unique taste sensations, including fat, or more specifically, free fatty acids (FFA). A set of criteria are proposed here and the data related to FFA are reviewed on each point. It is concluded that the data are moderate to strong that there are: A) adaptive advantages to FFA detection in the oral cavity; B) adequate concentrations of FFA to serve as taste stimuli; C) multiple complimentary putative FFA receptors on taste cells; D) signals generated by FFA that are conveyed by gustatory nerves; E) sensations generated by FFA that can be detected and scaled by psychophysical methods in humans when non-gustatory cues are masked; and F) physiological responses to oral fat/FFA exposure. On no point is there strong evidence challenging these observations. The reviewed findings are suggestive, albeit not definitive, that there is a taste component for FFA.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.