Latency and inhibition of human masticatory muscles following stimuli.

Latency-inhibition behavior was always produced in contracting anterior temporal muscles following the application of various stimuli to the teeth and jaws of 31 subjects. Statistically significant differences in duration were generally observed with different procedures. In half of the subjects, the first one or two closures in a sequence of repetitive tapping evoked a longer period of inhibition than subsequent closures. No reflex or latency-inhibition behavior could be produced in contracting digastric muscles. Comparisons of means for individual subjects did not follow the pattern suggested by comparisons of total sample means in almost half of the subjects.