Human perioral muscle activation patterns

Task-dependent human motor organization in the perioral region was examined in eight normal adults who performed oral tasks including lip protrusion, chewing, and speech. Zero phase-lag correlations among EMG signals recorded from quadrants surrounding the lips were calculated in order to determine patterns of motor coupling. Results indicated that the perioral musculature is flexible in output organization. Activity in all quadrants was highly positively correlated during the protrusion task. During the chewing task, correlations were moderate, with a stronger pattern bilaterally across the upper and lower lips. The speech tasks showed lower levels of correlation among the quadrants, but again the pattern was more highly correlated bilaterally than ipsilaterally. Results are compared to studies of oral muscle innervation in humans and animals and also are related to hypotheses of cortical control patterns for oral movement.