Neurological Aspects of Taste Disorders

The sense of taste is generally regarded as less important compared with vision and hearing. However, gustatory disorders considerably diminish the pleasures of life and can lead to work-related problems. At its worst, this deficit may become a life-threatening hazard. However, few studies are found in the medical literature on taste disorders, including authoritative textbooks of neurology and internal medicine. 1 One reason for this may be that gustatory functions are tied to the sense of smell, the somatosensory system, and the perception of pain (eg, when spicy food is eaten), which makes it difficult to examine sensations mediated through an individual system. In addition, gustatory dysfunction is rare, eg, compared with olfactory disorders. 2,3 Therefore, the scope of this review from a neurological viewpoint is to alert physicians to the problem of taste disorders and to help in the diagnosis.