Temporal dissociation of taste mixture components

Reaction times to salty and bitter tastes as single stimuli and in mixture were measured using response time deadlines ranging from 300 to 2500 ms. Salty reaction times were the same whether salty was in mixture with bitter or a single stimulus, and they were always shorter than bitter reaction times. Reaction time to bitter was slower in mixture with salty than as a single taste. Salty, alone and in mixture, was correctly identified on ˜80% of the trials within 500 ms while correct bitter identifications did not reach similar levels until 1000 ms. Bitter in mixture with salty never reached that level of correct responding and correct responses actually decreased slightly at response time deadlines of 2500 ms. The results show that differences in taste onset latency are great enough to allow identification of single tastes in mixtures.