Linda M. Bartoshuk
University of Florida
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Primary Section: 52, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Secondary Section: 28, Systems Neuroscience Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2003)
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Biosketch
Bartoshuk is a Bushnell Professor at the University of Florida. Past president of the Association for Psychological Science, Eastern Psychological Association, Divisions 1 and 6 of the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. She has been elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She has received the AAAS McGovern Award in Behavioral Sciences, the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, The AChemS Mozell Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Chemical Senses and the APS William James Fellow Award. Bartoshuk and her students have studied genetic variation in taste as well as patients with taste disorders (using anesthesia to simulate these disorders in normal controls). Older psychophysical methods (category and VAS) were not designed to compare different groups of individuals; Bartoshuk and her students needed such comparisons (e.g., comparisons across different genetic groups; patients vs controls) and so developed new sensory and hedonic scaling tools that could provide them.
Research Interests
Bartoshuk has collaborated with colleagues in horticulture to increase the palatability of fruits and vegetables. That work serendipitously led to a new way to enhance sweet and salty taste sensations as well as reduce bitter taste sensations. This may lead to a new way to restore taste function in patients with taste nerve damage. This work will also contribute to the reduction of sugar and artificial sweetener intake as well as the reduction of sodium intake. The ability to reduce unwanted bitter sensations will contribute to the intake of healthy, bitter tasting foods (e.g., green leafy vegetables) as well as intake of medications in infants and children. She has studied the dietary consequences of taste damage induced by viruses. This taste damage leads to intensification of sensory signals from fats with enhancement of the palatability of high fat foods and weight gain. This work may potentially apply to the covid-19 virus-induced taste loss.
