Patterns of jaw muscle activity during voluntary chewing

Mastication is controlled by central rhythm and burst generators, but whether this control is similar under automatic and voluntary chewing is not clear. Our first aim was to determine whether increased chewing frequency led to a proportional decrease in both the burst duration (the time of muscle activity) and the interburst interval (time of inactivity) of each muscle or to a minimal decrease in the burst duration and a substantial decrease in the interburst interval. Our second aim was to determine whether these two manifestations of control differed between the opening and closing muscles. Electromyograms from digastric, medial pterygoid, masseter and anterior temporalis muscles were obtained during gum chewing by five subjects at four frequencies. A nearly fourfold decrease in total cycle duration (TCD) with increased chewing frequencies was accompanied by minimal changes in burst duration in the digastric muscle but proportional changes in the jaw closing muscles. The onset latency of the digastric muscle as a percentage of TCD decreased and became negative (i.e. occurred before opening started) as the TCD decreased. The onset latencies of the jaw closing muscles remained roughly 10-20% of the TCD for the three lower chewing frequencies. Control of the opening muscle appears to differ from control of the closing muscles.