Context Dependent Adaptation of Biting Behavior in Humans

ABSTRACT The focus of this thesis was to study an action that humans perform regularly, namely, to hold a morsel between the teeth and split it into smaller pieces. Three different issues related to this biting behavior were addressed: (1) the effect of reduced periodontal tissues on food holding and splitting behavior; (2) the behavioral consequences of performing different bite tasks with different functional requirements, i.e., to split a peanut half resting on a piece of chocolate or to split both the peanut and the chocolate; and (3) the reflex modulations resulting from such a change in the intended bite action. The main conclusions from the experimental studies were the following: First, periodontitis, an inflammatory disease that destroys the periodontal ligaments and the embedded periodontal mechanoreceptors, causes significant impairments in the masticatory ability: the manipulative bite forces when holding a morsel are elevated compared to a matched control population and the bite force development prior to food split is altered. These changes are likely due to a combination of reduced sensory information from the damaged ligaments and to changes in the bite strategy secondary to the unstable oral situation. Second, people exploit the anatomy of jaw-closing muscles to regulate the amount of bite force that dissipates following a sudden unloading of the jaw. Such control is necessary because without mechanisms that quickly halt jaw-closing movements after sudden unloading, the impact forces when the teeth collide could otherwise damage both the teeth and related soft tissues. Splitting a piece of chocolate, for instance, regularly requires >100N of bite force and the jaws collide within 5 ms of a split. On the other hand, when biting through heterogeneous food, the bite force needs to be kept high until the whole morsel is split. The required regulation is achieved by differentially engaging parts of the masseter muscles along the anteroposterior axis of the jaw to exploit differences between muscle portions in their bite force generating capacity and muscle shortening velocity. Finally, the reflex evoked by suddenly unloading the jaw—apparent only after the initial bite force dissipation—is modulated according to the bite intention. That is, when the intention is to bite through food items with multiple layers, the reflex response in the jaw opening muscles following a split is small, thus minimizing the bite force reduction. In contrast, when the intention is to rapidly decrease the bite force once a split has occurred, the reflex response is high. This pattern of reflex modulation is functionally beneficial when biting through heterogeneous food in a smooth manner. The presented studies show the significance of integrating cognitive, physiological and anatomical aspects when attempting to understand human masticatory control. Anders Johansson: Context Dependent Adaptation of Biting Behavior in Humans PUBLICATIONS ON WHICH THIS THESIS IS BASED PUBLICATIONS ON WHICH THIS THESIS IS