The jaw muscles play key functional roles during feeding. During contraction, a bioelectrical signal propagates along the muscle cell helping to coordinate muscle contraction. This signal can be measured via electromyography (EMG). Food scientists…
Several bony and soft tissue structures of the callitrichid masticatory apparatus have been studied to understand how gouging behavior in marmosets is facilitated by specific morphologies. While marmoset craniofacial anatomy indicates features that…
The relationship between mandibular form and biomechanical function is a topic of significant interest to morphologists and paleontologists alike. Several previous studies have examined the morphology of the mandible in gouging and nongouging…
The jaw-closing muscles are responsible for generating many of the forces and movements associated with feeding. Muscle physiologic cross-sectional area (PCSA) and fiber length are two architectural parameters that heavily influence muscle function.…
Even though in vivo studies of mastication in living primates are often used to test functional and adaptive hypotheses explaining primate masticatory behavior, we currently have little data addressing how experimental procedures performed in the…
Although all genera of Callitrichinae feed on tree exudates, marmosets (Callithrix and Cebuella) use specialized anterior teeth to gouge holes in trees and actively stimulate exudate flow. Behavioral studies demonstrate that marmosets use large jaw…
Common (Callithrix jacchus) and pygmy (Cebuella pygmaea) marmosets and cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) share broadly similar diets of fruits, insects, and tree exudates. Marmosets, however, differ from tamarins in actively gouging trees with…
The objective of the study was to understand how physical and structural properties of food translate into sensory perception. A range of gels with different structures were developed by combined mechanisms of ion-induced micro-phase separation of…
The major purpose of this study is to analyze anterior and posterior temporalis muscle force recruitment and firing patterns in various anthropoid and strepsirrhine primates. There are two specific goals for this project. First, we test the…
Resource distribution shapes many aspects of primate behavioral ecology. Though the spatial patterning of fruits, leaves, and insects has been explored among primate foods, comparatively less is known about exudate distributions. Tree exudates are a…
Three sympatric Hapalemur species (H. g. griseus, H. aureus, and H. (Prolemur) simus) in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar are known to eat bamboo food parts that contain cyanide. How these lemurs avoid cyanide poisoning remains unknown. In this…
Non-human primates demonstrate food preferences much like humans. We have little insight, however, into how those preferences impact oral processing in primates. To begin describing this relationship, we conducted a preliminary analysis measuring…
It was proposed that the power stroke in primates has two distinct periods of occlusal contact, each with a characteristic motion of the mandibular molars relative to the maxillary molars. The two movements are called phase I and phase IT, and they…
The Feeding Experiments End-user Database (FEED) is a research tool developed by the Mammalian Feeding Working Group at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center that permits synthetic, evolutionary analyses of the physiology of mammalian feeding.…
