The Influence of External Forces on Wrist Proprioception

Abstract

Proprioception combines information from cutaneous, joint, tendon, and muscle receptors for maintaining a reliable internal body image. However, it is still a matter of debate, in both neurophysiology and psychology, to what extent such body image is modified or distorted by a changing haptic environment. In particular, what is worth investigating is the contribution of external forces on our perception of body and joint configuration. The proprioceptive acuity of fifteen young participants was tested with a Joint Position Matching (JPM) task, performed with the dominant wrist under five different external forces, in order to understand to what extent they affect proprioceptive acuity. Results show that accuracy and precision in target matching do not change in a significant manner as a function of the loading condition, suggesting that the multi-sensory integration process is indeed capable of discriminating different sub-modalities of proprioception, namely the joint position sense and the sense of force. Furthermore, results indicate a preference for target undershooting when movements are performed in a viscous or high resistive force field, rather than passive or null fields in which subjects did not show any predominance for under/over estimation of their position.

Wrist Position Sense in Two Dimensions: Between-Hand Symmetry and Anisotropic Accuracy Across the Space

“…Another main finding of this study is the anisotropy of wrist position sense, in both the perception of movement direction and extent. Particularly, our results should be compared with what has been found in previous works which investigated proprioception limited to FE and RUD directions in terms of extent of movement ( Cappello et al, 2015 ; Marini et al, 2016a , b , 2017a ). Our results suggest that error in the perception of movement extent is higher along the RUD than the FE plane.…”

Body representation underlies response of proprioceptive acuity to repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation

“…Besides, Mugnosso et al revealed that muscle fatigue, which inputted abundance of proprioception, could decrease proprioceptive bias but not proprioceptive precision ( Mugnosso et al, 2019 ). However, external forces that might not be able to input enough proprioception as the repeated active movements of what fatigue protocol achieved failed to affect proprioceptive bias ( Kuling et al, 2013 ; Marini et al, 2017a ). Combined with this study, proprioception input from distal upper extremity induced directly by rPMS and indirectly by extension movements of the wrist joint could only improve proprioceptive bias but did not influence the experience of joint position matching; therefore, proprioceptive precision remained unchanged.…”

Simple and Reliable Position Sense Assessment Under Different External Torques: Toward Developing a Post-Stroke Proprioception Evaluation Device

“…Commonly adopted PS tests, namely ITM [54], [55], [74], [77]- [82] and CTM [1], [48], [60], [70], [73], [83]- [86] tests, were considered for testing PS in this study. ITM tests and CTM tests with different levels of external torque could be performed with the developed device as follows.…”

“…For instance, one can grasp a cup of coffee and bring it to her/his mouth to drink regardless of how much coffee is in it; one can move her/his arm to the desired position without looking at it under the downward gravitational force; and one can lift a book that s/he wants to read to the vicinity of her/his face. For these tasks, in the processing of the PS, external force/torque information, obtained from peripheral proprioceptors (e.g., Golgi tendon organ), may be used [1], [45]- [49], [54]- [60] in addition to the position information from the proprioceptors in muscle, skin, and joint. Furthermore, the PS is determined not only by the afferent feedback from the muscle, joint, and cutaneous proprioceptors but also by the efferent motor commands to the muscle (effort-based signal) [1], [2], [49], which are closely related to the sense of effort [1], [61]- [63] and provide an estimate of the intended posture [2], [56], [64], [65].…”

“…Even for healthy subjects, it is, however, not very clear whether or not the external forces/torques affect the PS. Some studies report significant effects of the external forces/torques [1], [45]- [49], while others do not [54]- [60]. Thus, there is a need for further investigation into the effect of external forces/torques on PS, considering that external forces/torques can change the effort command to the muscle and may be utilized together with position information to obtain PS.…”