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Abstract:
A structural model representing the muscles and other tissue
components of the tongue body, the mouth floor and part of the
pharynx will be presented. The model represents the distribution
and orientation of the muscular tissue of the oral articulators.
It is composed of curvilinear geometrical primitives (topological
tetrahedra, prisms and hexahedra). It is based mainly on an
assessment and measurements of the oral anatomy from the Visible
Human data sets (one male and one female cadaver). The tongue and
other oral articulators are represented by blocks that are
usually part of one or two muscles (e.g., among the intrinsic
muscles of the tongue the transversalis and verticalis muscles).
The model may be used for normalization if it is turned into an
approximate three-dimensional structural model of individual
morphology by adapting its geometry to existing MR data. The main
purpose of the structural model is the generation of a finite
element mesh of the oral structures that will be used for a more
accurate computational simulation of the movements of the oral
soft tissue articulators.
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