Regulation of human jaw tapping force with visual biofeedback.

The purpose of this study, which made use of visual biofeedback,, was to de termine whether jaw tapping force reproduction is related to the strength o f tapping and to investigate how jaw tapping force affects the tapping move ment curve. Nine healthy examinees were asked to reproduce jaw tapping forc e. We found that the ease and method of regulating jaw tapping force differ ed depending on the target force. We also found that jaw tapping force was regulated by alteration of the jaw opening distance, the duration of the to oth contact phase, the duration of the jaw closing phase, the maximum jaw o pening velocity, and the maximum jaw closing velocity. However, the duratio n of the jaw opening phase and cycle time was not affected by force regulat ion under our experimental conditions.