Tongue reflex for speech posture control.

Although there is no doubt from an empirical viewpoint that reflex mechanisms can contribute to tongue motor control in humans, there is limited neurophysiological evidence to support this idea. Previous results failing to observe any tonic stretch reflex in the tongue had reduced the likelihood of a reflex contribution in tongue motor control. The current study presents experimental evidence of a human tongue reflex in response to a sudden stretch while holding a posture for speech.