title: Reproducibility of the human masseteric jaw-jerk reflex in association with the menstrual cycle.
abstract: The jaw jerk was elicited by chin taps in the relaxed masseter muscle of the preferred chewing side in five young females. Recordings were made during three randomized sessions and under standardized conditions: two sessions between the seventh and the 15th day of the female menstrual cycle and the third within the last 5 days of the cycle. Both latency and duration of the reflex were generally reproducible over time. Individual between-session variation was occasionally present, with a general tendency for lower values in the end-cycle session, but this did not affect the overall results. Systematic subject variation, such as central excitatory-state variance of the timing of the experiments, and possibly some other uncontrolled technical error, may have contributed to the observed variation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Removable Prosthodontics, Dental School, University of Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Kossioni
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Karkazis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000502:physiology*; D008406:Masseter Muscle / Q000502:physiology*; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D015588:Observer Variation; D010474:Percussion; D011293:Premenstrual Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology; D012026:Reflex, Stretch / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results