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Concomitant mandibular and head‐neck movements during jaw opening–closing in man
Author(s) -
Eriksson P. O.,
Zafar H.,
Nordh E.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of oral rehabilitation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2842
pISSN - 0305-182X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2842.1998.00333.x
Subject(s) - closing (real estate) , movement (music) , anatomy , mandible (arthropod mouthpart) , neck muscles , head and neck , concomitant , medicine , physical medicine and rehabilitation , orthodontics , surgery , biology , physics , acoustics , law , genus , botany , political science
To test the hypothesis of a functional relationship between the human mandibular and cranio‐cervical motor systems, head‐neck movements during voluntary mandibular movements were studied in 10 healthy young adults, using a wireless optoelectronic system for three‐dimensional (3D) movement recording. The subjects, unaware of the underlying aim of the study, were instructed to perform maximal jaw opening–closing tasks at fast and slow speed. Movements were quantified as 3D movement amplitudes. A consistent finding in all subjects was parallel and coordinated head‐neck movements during both fast and slow jaw opening–closing tasks. Jaw opening was always accompanied by head‐neck extension and jaw closing by head‐neck flexion. Combined movement and electromyographic recordings showed concomitant neck muscle activity during head‐neck movements, indicative of an active repositioning of the head. No differences in 3D movement amplitudes could be seen with respect to speed. The head movement was 50% of the mandibular movement during jaw opening, but significantly smaller (30–40%), during the jaw closing phase. In repeated tests, the 3D movement amplitudes of the concomitant head movements were less variable during slow jaw movement and during the jaw opening phase, than during fast and jaw closing movements, suggesting speed‐ and phase‐related differences in the mechanisms controlling the integrated mandibular and head‐neck motor acts. The present results give further support to the concept of a functional trigemino‐cervical coupling during jaw activities in man.