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The refractory period of the masseteric cutaneous silent period
Author(s) -
SVENERIK WIDMALM,
ASH M. M.
Publication year - 1985
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2842.1985.tb01287.x
Subject(s) - silent period , refractory period , stimulus (psychology) , period (music) , latency stage , audiology , medicine , stimulation , psychology , anesthesia , physics , transcranial magnetic stimulation , acoustics , psychotherapist
Summary Silent periods were elicited in the electromyographic activity of the masseter and temporalis muscles from six normal subjects, by electrical stimulation of the skin over the contralateral masseter during clenching. Pairs of suprathreshold square pulses with varied time intervals were delivered using surface electrodes. It was found that the silent periods, which were mostly of the long latency (about 53 ms) type, had a refractory period, during which a new silent period could be evoked only by increasing the strength of the second stimulus. This refractory period could last for up to 1.5 s. During the first 200 ms after the first stimulus a second silent period was almost impossible to evoke with the moderately painful stimuli used in the present experiments. It is suggested that the refractory period should be considered as significant for the methodology when recording the silent period duration. It is also suggested that the long latency silent period should be recorded as a separate parameter and differentiated from the short latency (10–12 ms) silent period. This may be of special importance to recognize when a short latency silent period and a long latency silent period merge.