Effect of Texture of Plastic and Elastic Model Foods on the Parameters of Mastication

Mastication is continually modified throughout the chewing sequence in response to the texture of the food. The aim of this work was to compare the effects of an increase in hardness of two model food types, presenting either elastic or plastic rheological properties, on mastication. Each model food type consisted of four products of different hardness. Sensory testing experiments conducted with one group of 14 subjects showed significant perceived differences between products in terms of their increasing hardness. Fifteen other volunteers were asked to chew three replicates of each elastic and plastic product during two sessions. EMGs of masseter and temporalis muscles were recorded simultaneously with jaw movement during chewing. Numerous variables were analyzed from these masticatory recordings. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess the respective effects of food hardness and rheological properties on variables characterizing either the whole masticatory sequence or different stages of the sequence. Muscle activities were significantly affected by an increase in hardness regardless of the food type, whereas the shape of the cycles depended on the rheological properties. The masticatory frequency was affected by hardness at the initial stage of the sequence but overall frequency adaptation was better explained by a change in rheological behavior, with plastic products being chewed at a slower frequency. A dual hypothesis was proposed, implicating first a cortical-brain stem preprogrammed mechanism to adapt the shape of the jaw movements to the rheological properties of the food, and second, a brain stem mechanism with mainly sensory feedback from the mouth to adapt muscle force to the food hardness.