Abstract
This study aims to investigate how emotional information and pain-related information affect the activity of the masticatory muscles in participants with awake bruxism and controls. Different videos and texts, with positive, negative, and neutral valence or related to pain, were presented to a sample of university students, while their electromyographic (EMG) activity around the masseter muscle and their skin conductance were recorded. Two groups were selected, with 24 subjects each: one group of subjects with definitive awake bruxism (confirmed by posterior EMG activity) who also suffered from moderate jaw discomfort, and another group of subjects without bruxism. The results demonstrated that the subjects with definitive awake bruxism displayed greater muscular activity when presented videos and texts with negative valence, especially when related to pain, than the non-bruxist group. This study supports the idea that persons with bruxism who also suffer moderate levels of jaw discomfort present greater bruxism activity when watching pain-related stimuli, and to a lesser extent when watching negative stimuli. The increased muscular activity induced by negative and pain-related information might contribute to pain exacerbation and perpetuation in persons with bruxism who suffer from discomfort.
Published Version
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