Mandibular kinesthesia in fatigue of human jaw muscles.
Fatigue was developed by four human subjects after negative work, and by two subjects after negative/positive work by the jaw muscles. Another four subjects did not develop fatigue subsequent to muscular exercise. In subjects with fatigue, the ability to perceive and/or produce repetitively a predetermined mandibular posture, i.e. mandibular kinesthesia, was impaired by about 285%. It is suggested that the distorted kinesthesia resulted from either a fatigue-induced failure of, or a fatigue-induced persistence of, jaw muscle fibers to contract, which in turn led to distorting flows of afferent impulses from muscles spindles and/or tendon organs.
D000328:Adult; D005221:Fatigue; D006801:Humans; D007568:Jaw; D007699:Kinesthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000502:physiology*; D008410:Masticatory Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D005082:Physical Exertion