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Improving the Assessment of Trigeminal Sensitivity: a Pilot Study

  • Published:
Chemosensory Perception

Abstract

Introduction

The trigeminal system is a chemosensory system, next to smell and taste, allowing intranasal sensations such as freshness, spiciness, etc. The lateralization task is used to measure trigeminal sensitivity and consists in identifying the nostril stimulated by an odorous substance in a two-alternative forced-choice procedure. However, when performed in the standard method, this task takes almost 25 to 30 min to administer and only gives access to few information.

Methods

The aim of this pilot study was to compare two alternative methods of administering the lateralization task with the standard method in a group of 53 participants (41.6 years; 32 women). Specifically, we compared (1) the standard method of 40 constant stimuli with a duration of 500 ms, (2) a short version of 20 variable stimuli ranging from 200 to 600 ms (different duration method—DD), and (3) an automatic adaptive staircase method where the test adjusts the duration of stimulation according to the participant’s responses (adaptive duration method—AD).

Results

Based on the number of correct answers and the thresholds obtained with the automatic staircase method, the average scores for the two alternative methods correlate with the score at the standard method. In addition, both alternative methods are able to discriminate between participants with a high sensitivity and those with a lower sensitivity. Finally, the DD method is significantly shorter in terms of administration time than the other two methods.

Conclusion

This pilot study presents two novel methods to evaluate trigeminal sensitivity which each have a specific superiority over the established technique.

Implications

The DD method cuts testing time in half whereas the AD method provides threshold estimates for individual nostrils.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank S. Wang and J. Desrosiers for their contribution to the testing and we thank all the participants in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) [2015-04597], FRQS (Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Santé) scholar [#32618] and the UQTR Research Chair in Chemosensory Neuroanatomy. BJ is supported by an CRSNG scholarship and the J.A De Sève Scholarship of the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Québec, G9A 5H7, Canada

    Benoît Jobin

  2. Research Center, Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal, 5400 boul. Gouin Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H4J 1C5, Canada

    Benoît Jobin, Fanny Lécuyer Giguère & Johannes Frasnelli

  3. Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Québec, G9A 5H7, Canada

    Cécilia Tremblay & Johannes Frasnelli

  4. Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, 90 avenue Vincent d’Indy, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Fanny Lécuyer Giguère

  5. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, 125 University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada

    Jason Steffener

Authors
  1. Benoît Jobin
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  2. Cécilia Tremblay
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  3. Fanny Lécuyer Giguère
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  5. Johannes Frasnelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johannes Frasnelli.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki on biomedical research involving human subjects and approved by the local Ethics Committee of the Sacré-Coeur Hospital (SCH) in Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM #2017-1321).

Ethical Approval

All participants gave written informed consent prior to participation.

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Jobin, B., Tremblay, C., Giguère, F.L. et al. Improving the Assessment of Trigeminal Sensitivity: a Pilot Study. Chem. Percept. 14, 19–26 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-020-09281-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-020-09281-0

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