Use of a robotic device to measure age-related decline in finger proprioception.

Morgan L Ingemanson,Eric T Wolbrecht,Justin B Rowe,Vicky Chan,Steven C Cramer,David J Reinkensmeyer

doi:10.1007/s00221-015-4440-4

Morgan L Ingemanson, Eric T Wolbrecht + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4440-4

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Abstract

Age-related changes in proprioception are known to affect postural stability, yet the extent to which such changes affect the finger joints is poorly understood despite the importance of finger proprioception in the control of skilled hand movement. We quantified age-related changes in finger proprioception in 37 healthy young, middle-aged, and older adults using two robot-based tasks wherein participants' index and middle fingers were moved by an exoskeletal robot. The first task assessed finger position sense by asking participants to indicate when their index and middle fingers were directly overlapped during a passive crisscross movement; the second task assessed finger movement detection by asking participants to indicate the onset of passive finger movement. When these tasks were completed without vision, finger position sense errors were 48 % larger in older adults compared to young participants (p < 0.05); proprioceptive reaction time was 78 % longer in older adults compared to young adults (p < 0.01). When visual feedback was provided in addition to proprioception, these age-related differences were no longer apparent. No difference between dominant and non-dominant hand performance was found for either proprioception task. These findings demonstrate that finger proprioception is impaired in older adults, and visual feedback can be used to compensate for this deficit. The findings also support the feasibility and utility of the FINGER robot as a sensitive tool for detecting age-related decline in proprioception.

Highlights

Proprioception, the sense of how our bodies are positioned, is a critical component of voluntary movement control and is important for generating smooth, coordinated movements and for maintaining upright posture and balance (Gandevia et al 2002)
Hand performance was found for either proprioception task. These findings demonstrate that finger proprioception is impaired in older adults, and visual feedback can be used to compensate for this deficit
Additional assessments indicated hand dominance did not affect finger proprioception in either task. These results describe a decline of finger proprioception and finger proprioception reaction time with normal aging, a finding of concern to our aging population given that finger joint proprioceptive ability strongly relates to precise control of hand movements performed during activities of daily living

Summary

Introduction

Proprioception, the sense of how our bodies are positioned, is a critical component of voluntary movement control and is important for generating smooth, coordinated movements and for maintaining upright posture and balance (Gandevia et al 2002). A number of investigations have provided evidence that proprioception is affected by healthy aging and have focused on the ability of older individuals to detect passive motion or reproduce experimentally predetermined joint positions in the lower limb (Skinner et al 1984; Pai et al 1997; Petrella et al 2014). Exp Brain Res (2016) 234:83–93 associated with healthy aging (Berg 1989; Goble et al 2009a) These data have been taken as evidence of compromised proprioceptive acuity that is thought to contribute to age-related postural instability (Woollacott et al 1986), which lends to an increased risk of falls in older adults (Sorock and Labiner 1992; Lord et al 1999)

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