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| | Mastication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
 | | Chewing food is a complex motor function, muscles need to be powerful enough to break tough portions of food, yet have enough dexterity to not injure the tongue, and to clear the mouth completely. |
 | | The primary muscles of mastication, each of which is paired, are the temporalis, masseter, medial pterygoid and lateral pterygoid. |
 | | It is thought that feedback from proprioceptive nerves in teeth and the temporomandibular joints govern the creation of neural pathways, which in turn determine duration and force of individual muscle activation (and in some cases muscle fibre groups as in the masseter and temporalis). |
| en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Chewing (471 words) |
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