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Effects of Age, Sex, and Body Position on Orofacial Muscle Tone in Healthy Adults
What is it about?
Altered muscle tone can be one of the factors that interferes with speech in persons who have experienced neurological issues (stroke, brain injury, disease). In order to diagnose whether a particular person has abnormal muscle tone, comparative information from healthy people in the relevant muscles is needed. This paper reports measures of stiffness in the muscles of the mouth and face, with consideration for factors like age, sex, and body position (upright versus reclined) that are known to influence muscle tone and composition.
Why is it important?
Whereas comparative data for large muscles of the limbs and torso have been available for some time, they were not available for the much smaller muscles of the mouth and face until now.