The relationship between lingual-palatal pressures and submental surface electromyographic signals

This study investigated the relationship between lingual-palatal pressures and submental surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals. During isometric and isotonic tongue press tasks, lingual-palatal pressures from the anterior, middle and posterior hard palate and submental sEMG signals were recorded. Peak values of both tasks and mean values of the isotonic task were analyzed using Pearson's correlations. The correlations ranged from slightly negative (r = -0·103) between the posterior tongue bulb and sEMG peaks in the isotonic condition, to positive (r = 0·360) between the posterior tongue bulb and sEMG peaks in the isometric condition. None of the correlations were statistically significant. Overall, the correlations between submental sEMG signals and lingual-palatal pressures were low. These results suggest that sEMG signals obtained from the submental region measure some of muscle activation during tongue press tasks, but are unable to capture discrete variations in lingual-palatal pressure.