MS Patients May Lose Ability to Taste

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) lose their ability to taste depending on the number and size of lesions in the brain, according to a new study.

It is believed that lesions in the brain might cause patients with MS to lose their ability to taste certain foods, but little is known about the connection.

To investigate whether the amount and size of lesions impact taste function, researchers conducted a 96-trial taste test involving 73 patients with MS and 73 matched healthy controls.

Patients received a taste of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty samples on the left and right posterior and anterior areas of the tongue. Also, 63 patients received a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to identify the amount and size of lesions in the brain.

After analyzing the data, researchers determined that patients with MS are less likely to identify the 4 taste samples than the control group, regardless of sample placement on the tongue.

In addition, the inability to taste correlated with lesion size in the temporal, medial frontal, and superior frontal lobes and with amount of lesions in the left and right superior frontal lobes, right anterior cingulate gyrus, and left parietal operculum.

“These findings indicate that a sizable number of MS patients exhibit taste deficits that are associated with MS-related lesions throughout the brain,” researchers concluded.

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Doty RL, Tourbier IA, Pham DL, et al. Taste dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol. Published online first January 25, 2016. doi:10.1007/s00415-016-8030-6.