Evidence supporting a taste component for dietary fat has prompted study of plausible transduction mechanisms. One hypothesizes that long-chain, unsaturated fatty acids block selected delayed-rectifying potassium channels, resulting in a sensitization of taste receptor cells to stimulation by other taste compounds. This was tested in 17 male and 17 female adult (mean Ϯ SE age ϭ 23.4 Ϯ 0.7 yr) propylthiouracil tasters with normal resting triglyceride concentrations (87.3 Ϯ 5.6 mg/day) and body mass index (23.3 Ϯ 0.4 kg/m2 ). Participants were tested during two ϳ30-min test sessions per week for 8 wk. Eight stimuli were assessed in duplicate via an ascending, three-alternative, forced-choice procedure. Qualities were randomized over weeks. Stimuli were presented as room-temperature, 5-ml portions. They included 1% solutions of linoleic acid with added sodium chloride (salty), sucrose (sweet), citric acid (sour), and caffeine (bitter) as well as solutions of these taste compounds alone. Participants also rated the intensity of the five strongest concentrations using the general labeled magnitude scale. The suprathreshold samples were presented in random order with a rinse between each. Subjects made the ratings self-paced while wearing nose clips. It was hypothesized that taste thresholds would be lower and absolute intensity ratings or slopes of intensity functions would be higher for the stimuli mixed with the linoleic acid. Thresholds were compared by paired t-tests and intensity ratings by repeated measures analysis of variance. Thresholds were significantly higher (i.e., lower sensitivity) for the sodium chloride, citric acid, and caffeine solutions with added fatty acid. Sweet, sour, and salty intensity ratings were lower or unchanged by the addition of a fatty acid. The two highest concentrations of caffeine were rated as weaker in the presence of linoleic acid. These data do not support a mechanism for detecting dietary fats whereby fatty acids sensitize taste receptor cells to stimulation by taste compounds. fatty acid; fat; human; taste transduction; chemosensory THERE IS CONVERGING EVIDENCE for an oral chemosensory detection system for fatty acids in animal models and humans. Application of long-chain, unsaturated, fatty acids depolarizes isolated taste receptor cells from fungiform papillae (15). Behavioral animal studies have not adequately controlled all potential cues from dietary fats but suggest that animals prefer solutions containing low concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids when textural cues are masked (12, 48) and olfactory cues are eliminated (12). Studies of esophagostomized or esophagus-ligated rats reveal orosensory exposure to free, unsaturated fatty acids elicits a rapid release of digestive enzymes (18,23). Orosensory exposure to high-fat stimuli by rhesus macaque monkeys leads to a rapid activation of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex and this is modulated by appetite (42). In humans, psychophysical data (20,37,43,47), functional MRI scans (6), and studies of cephalic phase respo...