Simple reaction-time responses to mechanical and electrical stimuli in human masseter muscle

The latencies of the simple reaction-time responses for opening and closing of the jaws in response to taps and pushes on teeth and lip shocks were measured in human adults. The reaction times were scored from both the integrated electromyographic (EMG) signal in individual trials, and from the cumulative sum (CUSUM) of the averaged EMG response to 50 stimuli. The mean reaction times for both closing and opening were about 80-90 ms for taps and electrical lip shocks, and about 140 ms for push, measured from the CUSUMs. The reaction times in individual trials were difficult to measure from the EMG signal because of the unsteady baseline. In contrast, the reaction times measured from the CUSUMs were clearly defined by the point at which the record began to move sharply above or below the baseline. However, because of the delays inherent in the CUSUM procedure, they were systematically longer than the means of the trial-by-trial measurements.