Pilot electromyographic studies of resting oral activity in obese and normal subjects

Subjects were placed alone in a room where purposeful oral activity such as eating, talking and smoking was not permitted, while activity such as pursing the lips sucking on cheeks, grimaces etc was measured by a specially designed electromyometer. This was done via electrodes attached to the peri-oral area and was recorded in a standardized fashion. In contrast to expectations, total resting activity in the obese did not differ significantly from that of normals. However, the two groups differ in that the time lapse prior to major peaking is significantly shorter in normals than in the obese. Analysis of patterns of both obese and normals suggests cyclic activity of approximately 120 min duration, and this was confirmed with a small group of ten obese subjects. The implications of these findings, in terms of previous work on oral cycles in the obese as well as implications for future research, are discussed.