Proprioception is robust under external forces

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 3;8(9):e74236. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074236. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Information from cutaneous, muscle and joint receptors is combined with efferent information to create a reliable percept of the configuration of our body (proprioception). We exposed the hand to several horizontal force fields to examine whether external forces influence this percept. In an end-point task subjects reached visually presented positions with their unseen hand. In a vector reproduction task, subjects had to judge a distance and direction visually and reproduce the corresponding vector by moving the unseen hand. We found systematic individual errors in the reproduction of the end-points and vectors, but these errors did not vary systematically with the force fields. This suggests that human proprioception accounts for external forces applied to the hand when sensing the position of the hand in the horizontal plane.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Proprioception*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research is supported by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and partly funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. STW grant 12160. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.