Facial Electromyography: Responses of Children to Odor and Taste Stimuli

Abstract

The study investigated the potential for facial electromyography (EMG) to be used as a clinical tool for measuring the responses of children to pleasant and unpleasant smell and taste stimuli. Responses in the zygomaticus major and levator labii muscles to 4 odorants and 4 tastants were recorded from 34 children aged 6-9 years. The results indicated that EMG activities in the 2 muscles discriminated between pleasant and unpleasant stimuli within each modality in a manner that indicated that the children perceived the hedonic qualities of the stimuli in a manner similar to that reported for adults. Importantly, there was unanimous agreement across the children as regards the differential nature of the activities exhibited. These outcomes together with the results of earlier facial expression studies suggest that facial EMG may provide an objective procedure that could be suitable for the clinical assessment of taste and smell function in newborns and young infants.

Quantitative instruments used to assess children's sense of smell: a review article

“…We perceived, however, a larger amount of studies with samples of less than 100 individuals (16,17,19,20) and a higher prevalence of female children.…”

“…Authors linked to medicine departments (16)(17)(18)(19) are the ones who most frequently conduct studies on smell among children. We highlight the lack of studies coordinated and carried out by speech-language pathologists, even though this sense is considerably important in the feeding process and for an individual's overall development.…”

“…Research studies on the quantification of the sense of smell with an exclusive focus on the pediatric population appeared in the 1990s (20) and intensified from 2005 onward (16)(17)(18)(19)21) . It is supposed that this late appearance of studies with purposes related to olfactory conditions in children is due to the fact that auditory and visual alterations have more noticeable negative consequences on this population than chemosensory disorders.…”

“…It is important to highlight the lack of studies on the characterization and assessment of this function in South America, and especially in Brazil, although there are Brazilian review articles in which scholars relate total laryngectomy to smell/taste alterations and assessments and the rehabilitation of these functions (22,23) . The population studied in the articles selected for this review was chiefly composed of healthy children (16)(17)(18)20,21) , probably because there are no normative standards that allow for comparisons between healthy and sick populations.…”

Morphological Study of Myoneural Interaction between the Levator Labii Superioris Muscle and its Motor Nerve in Rats

“…The knowledge of these data provides surgeons with anatomic basis for future surgical strategies (Woltmann et al, 2006), avoiding lesions in the facial nerve region, wich is often prone to injuries that require interventions (Guntinas-Lichius et al, 2007). Important data can also be obtained through clinical examination, using electromyography method (Wolf et al, 2006;Armstrong et al, 2007), as many facial muscles present more than one motor unity. Thus, each modality of physiotherapy used in the treatment of facial palsy (Shafshak, 2006), or even the manual stimulation (Guntinas-Lichius et al), can be better applied, by using the information about the quantity and location of the motor points.…”