Biomechanical modeling of the human tongue

Abstract

The tongue is a crucial organ for performing basic biological functions, such as chewing, swallowing and phonation. Understanding how it behaves, its motor control and involvement in the execution of these different tasks is therefore an important issue for the management and therapeutic treatment of pathologies relating to these essential functions so that quality of life can be preserved. This chapter focuses on the biomechanical modeling of this organ, as one of the key steps towards this understanding. Such a modeling will be an important tool to predict and control the functional impact of lingual surgery in the field of computer-assisted medical interventions.