The organization and activity patterns of the anterior and posterior heads of the guinea pig digastric muscle

1. The structure and activity patterns of the anterior and posterior heads of the guinea pig digastric mucosa (DG) were studied in ketamine-anesthetized guinea pigs. 2. Collagen staining of longitudinal and transverse sections of the muscle revealed that the guinea pig DG is comprised of a unicompartmental anterior head (ADG) and a multicompartmental posterior head (PDG) The two heads are separated by a thin tendinous inscription that, unlike the intermediate tendon of the DG in humans, is not attached to the hyoid bone. 3. The motor nuclei of the guinea pig DG were reconstructed using retrograde labeling with horseradish peroxidase. The motoneurons of the ADG were clustered in a longitudinal column within the right trigeminal motor nucleus. The motoneurons of the PDG were segregated into two clusters within the facial motor nucleus. The cross-sectional areas of the ADG and PDG motoneuron somata exhibited unimodal frequency distributions and the average soma area was larger for ADG than PDG motoneurons. 4. Histochemical characterization of ADG and PDG revealed that the two muscle heads contained the three main histochemical types of muscle fibers identified in limb muscles. The frequency distribution of fiber types in ADG and PDG were not significantly different. Both muscle heads were predominantly fast with slow oxidative fibers accounting for only 1.1 and 0.3% of the fibers in narrow dorsal regions of ADG and PDG, respectively, and 13.6 and 12.9% in the more ventral regions of ADG and PDG, respectively. 5. Simultaneous recordings of EMGs from the ADG and PDG were carried out during spontaneously occurring rhythmical jaw movements. These recordings revealed a high degree of synchrony between the activities of the two heads, although differences were observed in the onset and duration of the EMG bursts. Activity in the PDG preceded activity in the ADG in most of the rhythmical cycles and persisted longer. The differences in latencies of time-locked EMGs evokd in the ADG and PDG by four-pulse cortical stimulation were much smaller than those observed between the activity bursts of the two heads during rhythmical jaw movements. 6. It is suggested that the early activity in the PDG is accounted for by shorter central conduction times in the pathways onto it and/or by higher recruitability of its motor units. The early activity in PDG may serve to optimize the location of ADG on its length-tension curve prior to and during the active state.