A review of objective measures of gustatory function.

Several studies of diagnostic tests of gustatory function have been reported. Results show that none of the subjective tests are satisfactory because they cannot detect psychogenic disease or malingering. Of the objective modalities that have been investigated, gustatory-evoked potential testing has been the most widely studied because it does not require expensive equipment and can be used in multicenter studies. The techniques developed to date for measuring gustatory-evoked potentials are not yet clinically useful for diagnosing taste disorders. Future directions for improving this method of evaluating gustatory function include improving stimulation methods and equipment, in order to obtain better stimulation-related potentials and better means of distinguishing between normal and abnormal gustatory-evoked potential patterns, and applying these new standards to the evaluation of data.