The role of mouth state in the termination of drinking behavior in humans.

Drinking behavior produces a reduction in the unpleasant dry-mouth sensations that accompany thirst. However, it is unclear whether or not the termination of drinking behavior is governed by a mechanism that meters this process. Twenty-two participants were tested in both a "dry mouth" and a control condition. In the dry-mouth condition, they exercised for 20 min. Participants then placed two cotton-wool rolls in each cheek, adjacent to the upper and the lower teeth with the mouth closed, and then drank water through a straw until they felt satiated. The control condition was identical except that participants placed only a single roll in each cheek, adjacent to the lower teeth. Pilot testing confirmed that using two rolls in each cheek reduced saliva volume in the main oral cavity more effectively than one roll. In both conditions, thirst increased after exercise. However, intake volumes, the number of drinking bouts, and the duration of the drinking episodes, were significantly greater in the dry-mouth condition (means; episode = 93.8 s, bouts = 7.0, volume = 428 mL) than in the control condition (means; episode = 69.3 s, bouts = 4.7, volume = 300 mL). These findings suggest that the termination of drinking behavior is governed by changes in mouth dryness. More specifically, saliva production increases during drinking, and this attenuates the need to continue drinking to relieve mouth dryness.

Effects of temperature and volume on measures of mouth dryness, thirst and stomach fullness in males and females.

The immediate post-ingestive effects of temperature on thirst reduction were explored. Thirst was assessed by both ratings and a volume selection task. Supplementary ratings assessed mouth dryness and stomach fullness. All measures were taken before and 0, 2.5 and 5 min after drinking one of four water samples (150 ml/5 degrees C, 400 ml/5 degrees C, 150 ml/22 degrees C or 400 ml/22 degrees C). After 2.5 min, the cold sample produced greater reductions than the warmer sample in (i) the thirst ratings of males who received 400-ml samples, and (ii) the volume selections of females who received 150-ml samples. It is proposed that temperature influenced thirst reduction because of its differential effects on the post-ingestive state of the mouth.

Mouth-state dependent changes in the judged pleasantness of water at different temperatures.

Dehydration increases the pleasantness of cold (0 degrees C) water (Boulze et al., 1983, Physiol. Behav. 30:97-102, 1983). The hypothesis that the mouth dryness induced by dehydration mediates this hedonic shift was investigated. Hydrated assessors (n = 16) judged 3 degrees C water as more pleasant after artificial mouth drying than did controls (n = 16). Mouth drying failed to influence similar judgements of water 13 degrees C, 23 degrees C, and 33 degrees C. We propose that preference shifts depend on temperature because cold water offers more rewarding relief from the sensations resulting from mouth dryness. Measures on saliva production were consistent with this proposal. Assessors swilled with water (3 degrees C, 13 degrees C, 23 degrees C, and 33 degrees C) for 5 s and then emptied their mouths. Measures of subsequent saliva flow confirmed that cold (3 degrees C) water induces an elevated rate of saliva flow and consequently leaves the mouth in a wetter state.

Visual search and the detection of abnormal readings in graphical displays.

Two experiments evaluated the properties of polygon displays and bar graphs as fault indicator for systems with many parameters. A modified visual search paradigm was used to test the effectiveness of different display configurations to be check-read for the presence of abnormal ('target') readings. Whether the task was to detect the occurrence of a single abnormal (off-limits) parameter or count the number of abnormal parameters, both displays yielded response times and error rates that were independent of the total number (from 4 to 16) of displayed parameters. When the task was fault detection, the subjects performed equally well with both types of displays. When the task was counting the number of abnormalities, performance with the bar graph was independent of the number of abnormalities but performance with the polygon display was poorer overall and deteriorated with larger numbers of abnormalities. The results contradict either the proximity-compatibility hypothesis of Wickens or the traditional classification of polygons and bar graphs as typical integral and separable displays, respectively. The results are best characterized in terms of the similarity relations between and among 'target' and 'nontarget' parameters.

Effect of illness not associated with the thyroid gland on serum total and free thyroxine concentrations in cats.

OBJECTIVE: To determine circulating concentrations and fate of total and free thyroxine (T4) in cats with various illnesses not associated with the thyroid glands (nonthyroidal illnesses). DESIGN: Prospective study. ANIMALS: 98 cats with nonthyroidal illness and 50 clinically normal cats. PROCEDURE: Serum total T4 concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay, and serum free T4 concentrations were measured by direct equilibrium dialysis. Free T4 fraction was calculated from these 2 values. RESULTS: Serum total T4 concentrations were significantly (P < 0.001) lower in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 17.18 +/- 8.14 nmol/L), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 26.00 +/- 7.62 nmol/L). Serum total T4 concentrations were inversely correlated with mortality. Differences in serum free T4 concentrations in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 27.70 +/- 13.53 pmol/L), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 24.79 +/- 8.33 pmol/L), were not significant. A few sick cats had serum free T4 concentrations greater than the reference range. Calculated free T4 fraction was significantly (P < 0.001) greater in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 0.24 +/- 0.30%), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 0.10 +/- 0.06%). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Euthyroidism is maintained in sick cats, despite low serum total T4 concentrations. Measurement of serum total T4 concentrations is a valuable prognostic indicator. Serum free T4 concentrations should be used cautiously as a sole diagnostic criterion for confirmation of hyperthyroidism.

Holistic peripheral processing of a polygon display.

Polygon displays compress information that would otherwise be conveyed by separate indicators into a single display in which each reading is represented by the distance of a polygon vertex from its center. The effect on detection of fault states of varying the number of polygon vertices from 4 to 20 in a display presented peripherally around a dynamic, simulated flight display was studied. Presence of the dynamic task reduced both speed and accuracy of response to the polygon display but did not significantly affect the pattern of response to differing numbers of vertices. All measures of performance were better with larger numbers of vertices. If the vertices are processed serially, more vertices require more processing time. Therefore, the result argues for holistic processing and implies that such information integration is beneficial to human performance in fault detection.

Preference gives more consistent judgments than oddity only if the task can be modeled as forced choice.

Earlier data showed that subjects presented with two samples of distilled water and one of tap water were significantly more consistent in choosing the tap water as preferred than in identifying it as the odd sample in the set. The results were sometimes interpreted as demonstrating greater sensitivity for hedonic judgments than for oddity judgments. They are now shown to be explained by the statistical properties of the decision rules followed in different judgment tasks. In a new experiment, oddity and preference judgements were obtained in a replication of the original task with extra conditions. In two of the new conditions, the decision structure of a preference task was the same as that for the oddity task; in these conditions, performance was no better than with explicit oddity responses. The Thurstone-Ura model of triangle judgments proposed by Frijters predicts the results as an outcome of the greater statistical power of three-alternative forced choice tests compared with triangular tests. An excellent fit to all the data is given by a model wherein all subjects have the same d' for the difference between the water types but 25% of them prefer distilled water to tap water.

Preference can be more powerful than detection of oddity as a test of discriminability.

Subjects presented with sets of three samples, two of distilled water and one of tap water, were significantly more consistent in choosing the tap water as preferable than they were in identifying it as the odd sample in the set. The result is opposite to the prediction of high-threshold models of sensory discrimination, which say that if a difference is not noticed, preferences will be random, whereas if a difference is noticed, preferences may still be in either direction. The result can be quantitatively explained by a model advanced by Frijters to explain an analogous anomaly found with the triangle test used in the food industry. Applying his model to the observed proportions yields essentially equivalent estimates of sensory difference (d' = 1.5, approximately) from the two tasks, and a direction of preference almost unanimously in favor of the tap water that was used. Since the model predicts that the proportion of subjects choosing the odd item will depart further from chance in the preference task than in the oddity task, the former has greater power to reject the null hypothesis of no sensory difference if one exists and if preference is overwhelmingly in one direction.