I am studying the mechanical properties of the inhibitory jaw reflex evoked by the electrical stimulation of the upper lip in man (I record bite force by using an isometric force transducer between the anterior teeth, and I record bilateral EMG from both masseter muscles). In the course of my study, I found that the reflex relaxation had a slower onset and lasted longer than the corresponding period of suppression of electromyographic (EMG) activity. While the latter finding is exactly as one would expect, the former is, arguably, more surprising.
The mean latencies of onset of this response were: biting force, 52.7ms (SD:9.5ms); right masseter EMG, 37.9ms (SD:4.3ms); left masseter EMG, 38.5ms (SD:4.7ms). The latency of the bite force response was significantly longer than those for either EMG (Repeated Measures ANOVA with Bonferroni corrected paired t tests: P
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