Change of digastric muscle length in feeding rabbits

An experiment was undertaken to measure directly the changing length of a jaw muscle during feeding in four intact, unanesthetized New Zealand White rabbits. Metal markers were implanted to define the anterior and posterior ends of the single belly of the digastric muscle and fluoroscopic images were recorded on videotape while the animals fed on pelleted chow and carrot. Graphs of muscle length versus incisor separation were obtained by making measurements of single frames of the videotape record. The graphs revealed that when pelleted chow was being chewed the length of the digastric muscle changed by no more than 9% of its greatest length; during the latter part of the closing stroke it changed very little. Incising and chewing carrot caused the digastric muscle to change in length continuously throughout the chewing cycle; incising carrot resulted in a 13% change in the length of the digastric muscle. The velocity of shortening is slightly less than one muscle length per second.