Voluntary control of human jaw stiffness

Recent studies of human arm movement have suggested that the control of stiffness may be important both for maintaining stability and for achieving differences in movement accuracy. In the present study, we have examined the voluntary control of postural stiffness in 3D in the human jaw. The goal is to address the possible role of stiffness control in both stabilizing the jaw and in achieving the differential precision requirements of speech sounds. We previously showed that patterns of kinematic variability in speech are systematically related to the stiffness of the jaw. If the nervous system uses stiffness control as a means to regulate kinematic variation in speech, it should also be possible to show that subjects can voluntarily modify jaw stiffness. Using a robotic device, a series of force pulses was applied to the jaw to elicit changes in stiffness to resist displacement. Three orthogonal directions and three magnitudes of forces were tested. In all conditions, subjects increased the magnitude of jaw stiffness to resist the effects of the applied forces. Apart from the horizontal direction, greater increases in stiffness were observed when larger forces were applied. Moreover, subjects differentially increased jaw stiffness along a vertical axis to counteract disturbances in this direction. The observed changes in the magnitude of stiffness in different directions suggest an ability to control the pattern of stiffness of the jaw. The results are interpreted as evidence that jaw stiffness can be adjusted voluntarily, and thus may play a role in stabilizing the jaw and in controlling movement variation in the orofacial system.