Association for Biology Laboratory Education

Human Mastication Project Laboratory
 

Paul Lennard

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 1995, Volume 16

Abstract

The pattern of jaw movements during mastication is fairly simple and lends itself to both a kinematic and a non-invasive electromyographic (EMG) analysis. Students are provided with a customized Mac computer/LabView software virtual instrument system for the acquisition, storage, and parametric analysis of kinematic video data correlated on a frame-by-frame basis with multichannel EMG records. Each student is asked to design and implement a set of mastication experiments, thus gaining exposure to library research, outlining a feasible project, writing a grant proposal, data collection, analysis, and final presentation of results.

Keywords:  mastication, EMG, cantral pattern generators, kinematics

Emory University (1994)