Role Of Proprioception Research Articles

The Coracoacromial Ligament: Anatomy, Function, and Clinical Significance.

The coracoacromial ligament (CAL) was first described as a pain generator by Dr Charles Neer in the early 1970s. Since that time, considerable controversy regarding CAL management during acromioplasty has persisted. This review aims to better understand the role of the CAL in shoulder physiology and pathology. Sixty-six articles from 1958 to 2016 were identified using an electronic search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, AccessMedicine, and MD Consult for case series as well as cohort and prospective studies. The authors used “coracoacromial ligament” and “coracoacromial veil” as medical subject headings (MeSH). In addition, reference lists from all identified articles were reviewed for studies that the search terms may have omitted. The CAL plays an important role in shoulder biomechanics, joint stability, and proprioception. Morphological variance of the CAL is evident throughout the literature. Age-dependent changes due to chronic stress and cellular degradation cause thickening and stiffening of the CAL that may contribute to a spectrum of shoulder pathology from capsular tightness to rotator cuff tear arthropathy and impingement syndrome. The CAL is an integral component of the coracoacromial arch. CAL release during acromioplasty remains controversial. Future clinical outcomes research should endeavor to advance the understanding of the CAL to refine clinical and intraoperative decision making regarding its management.

Osteoarthritis and Proprioception: What Does the Literature Reveal?

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis, a common disabling degenerative disease of freely moving joints, is often accompanied by high levels of persistent pain, as well as significant impairments of function and functional capacity. This comprehensive literature review specifically explores the extent to which there is support for the idea that subnormal proprioception, a sensory modality involved in mediating reflex and coordinated movements, is an important feature of the osteoarthritis disease process, and hence worthy of efforts to detect this abnormality at the outset of the condition, as well as to intervene to heighten or normalize joint proprioception in symptomatic cases. METHODS: All English language peer reviewed published data pertaining to the topic of osteoarthritis and proprioception were sought. Pertinent clinical studies as well as intervention studies on this topic were then reviewed systematically with respect to their findings and study conclusions and reported in narrative form. RESULTS: Although a considerable number of studies published over the last 45 years were found to support a role for impaired proprioception in the pathology of osteoarthritis, this conclusion is not universal. Moreover, even though many forms of intervention can heighten proprioception, these interventions do not always result in the desired proprioceptive improvements, especially in the presence of severe osteoarthritic dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: Further research to more definitively examine the influence of proprioception in the osteoarthritis disability cycle, and at what point intervention may be more useful than not, using agreed upon terminology, methodology, outcome attributes, and careful sampling, is indicated.

Animate Shadows: Exploring synaesthesia and kinesthesia within digitised dance

This paper will consider the dynamic temporality of interactive digitised dance processes, as articulated through glitch artist Antonio Roberts and Butoh dancer Rachel Sweeney’s on-going digital choreographic collaboration. The paper examines some of the physiological processes that occur when live and digitised bodies inform each other through auto-generated choreography, activating a kind of affective engagement with an audience through immersivity. Auto-generated choreography can be defined here as the various modes of dance composition and production. These modes operate in the merger between live movement composition, re-articulation of live movement via recorded and projected movements of the dancer’s body, and also those emergent digitised dancing figures that result as a bi-product of working with digital glitch programming. The latter occurrs as non-determinate and non sequential movement. The themes put forward here are those that have emerged, circulated and dispersed within this digital choreographic process and harbor the micro sensitivities that exist within controlled and non controlled performance environments. Drawing from a phenomenological approach, this paper will reflect on critical writings surrounding the role of visuality and spectator empathy as put forward respectively by writer Brian Massumi and choreographer William Forsythe. This approach spurns a debate about how the act of calibrating live and digitised movement within auto-generated choreography presents Sweeney and Robert’s performance-making strategies as an active metaphor for embodying empathetic spectator processes. In particular, Sweeney’s own movement practice, which is fostered on Butoh training and performance, will be given consideration from three key terms: synaesthesia, multiplicity and dispersal. The writing thus offers an inquiry into the relationship between Butoh and glitch, underpinned by an interrogation of the role of proximity, perception and proprioception within integrated digital dance.

Effects of Joints Weight Bearing Exercises Combine with Range of Motion Exercises on Affected Limbs in Patents with Stroke

Background: Weight bearing exercises have great role in joint nutrition, bone density and proprioception thus helping in neuro muscular control. Objective: Objective of study was to find the effects of weight bearing exercises on affected limbs on neuromuscular control in patients with recent stroke. Methodology: We selected 05 patients, 03 males and 02 females, with recent stroke on volunteer basis with informed consent. Inclusion criteria was recent stroke 10 to 15 days back, age between 25-35, both male and female, no previous history of fracture , no significant history of osteoporosis, hemiplegic right or left, intact vision and intact cognition. Selection of subjects was made by visiting to medicine and ICU wards of different hospitals including government and private hospitals of city. Patients were informed about the treatments protocol free of costs. Setting of study was outdoor physical therapy clinic. Duration of study was 02 months, 05 days in a week, 1 h daily. Interventions were weight bearing on affected limb with range of motion exercises. Standing time, 06 minutes’ walk test, functional independent measure and disability rating scale were outcome measurement tools. Study design was pre to post trial. Pre-intervention measure was measured 03 to 05 days before starting the interventions on all outcome measurements tools. Post intervention measure was measured after 02 months. Pre to post measurements were compared by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: Pre interventional score on standing time test, 06 minutes’ walk test, functional independent measure and disability rating scale were 0, 0, 25 ± 05, 05 ± 01 respectively. Post interventional score on standing time test, 06 minutes’ walk test, functional independent measure and disability rating scale were 129 ± 09, 38 ± 05, 94 ± 09, 18 ± 02 respectively. Wilcoxon signed rank statistics (0.000) showed significant change. Conclusion: Study conclude that weight bearing exercises have significant role to improve standing time, walking distance, balance, motor skills and functional skills in patients with recent stroke.

Muscle Vibration-Induced Illusions: Review of Contributing Factors, Taxonomy of Illusions and User’s Guide

Limb muscle vibration creates an illusory limb movement in the direction corresponding to lengthening of the vibrated muscle. Neck muscle vibration results in illusory motion of visual and auditory stimuli. Attributed to the activation of muscle spindles, these and related effects are of great interest as a tool in research on proprioception, for rehabilitation of sensorimotor function and for multisensory immersive virtual environments. However, these illusions are not easy to elicit in a consistent manner. We review factors that influence them, propose their classification in a scheme that links this area of research to perception theory, and provide practical suggestions to researchers. Local factors that determine the illusory effect of vibration include properties of the vibration stimulus such as its frequency, amplitude and duration, and properties of the vibrated muscle, such as contraction and fatigue. Contextual (gestalt) factors concern the relationship of the vibrated body part to the rest of the body and the environment. Tactile and visual cues play an important role, and so does movement, imagined or real. The best-known vibration illusions concern one’s own body and can be classified as ‘first-order’ due to a direct link between activity in muscle spindles and the percept. More complex illusions involve other sensory modalities and external objects, and provide important clues regarding the hidden role of proprioception, our ‘silent’ sense. Our taxonomy makes explicit this and other distinctions between different illusory effects. We include User’s Guide with tips for anyone wishing to conduct a vibration study.

Importance of Proprioceptive Information for Postural Control in Children with Strabismus before and after Strabismus Surgery.

The objective of this study is to examine the role of proprioception in postural balance in children with strabismus before and after realignment of their visual axes by eye surgery. Postural recordings were made with the TechnoConcept® force platform in 23 children. Several conditions were studied, whether the subjects had both eyes open, or either the dominant or the non-dominant eye open, without and with foam pads of 4 mm underfoot. Recordings were performed before and after strabismus surgery. The surface area, the length and the mean speed of the center of pressure (CoP) were analyzed. Before strabismus surgery, all children showed better stability with both eyes open with respect to the condition with the non-dominant eye open; furthermore postural stability improved in the presence of foam pads. After surgery, the surface area of CoP decreased significantly, especially in the non-dominant eye viewing condition. We suggest that strabismic children use mainly proprioceptive information in order to control their posture, but also visual inputs, which are important for obtaining a good postural stability. The alignment of the visual axes after surgery provides enhanced postural stability, suggesting, again the major role of visual inputs in the control of posture. Proprioceptive plasticity after strabismus surgery may allow better visual rehabilitation.

Still seeing straight: No role for ocular proprioception in prism adaptation?

Still seeing straight: No role for ocular proprioception in prism adaptation?

Active inference and robot control: a case study

Active inference is a general framework for perception and action that is gaining prominence in computational and systems neuroscience but is less known outside these fields. Here, we discuss a proof-of-principle implementation of the active inference scheme for the control or the 7-DoF arm of a (simulated) PR2 robot. By manipulating visual and proprioceptive noise levels, we show under which conditions robot control under the active inference scheme is accurate. Besides accurate control, our analysis of the internal system dynamics (e.g. the dynamics of the hidden states that are inferred during the inference) sheds light on key aspects of the framework such as the quintessentially multimodal nature of control and the differential roles of proprioception and vision. In the discussion, we consider the potential importance of being able to implement active inference in robots. In particular, we briefly review the opportunities for modelling psychophysiological phenomena such as sensory attenuation and related failures of gain control, of the sort seen in Parkinson's disease. We also consider the fundamental difference between active inference and optimal control formulations, showing that in the former the heavy lifting shifts from solving a dynamical inverse problem to creating deep forward or generative models with dynamics, whose attracting sets prescribe desired behaviours.

Proprioception Is Necessary for Body Schema Plasticity: Evidence from a Deafferented Patient.

The ability of using a large variety of tools is important in our daily life. Behind human tool-use abilities lays the brain capacity to incorporate tools into the body representation for action (Body Schema, BS), thought to rely mainly on proprioceptive information. Here, we tested whether tool incorporation is possible in absence of proprioception by studying a patient with right upper-limb deafferentation. We adopted a paradigm sensitive to changes of the BS and analyzed the kinematics of free-hand movements before and after tool-use, in three sessions over a period of 2 years. In the first session, before tool-use, the kinematics of the deafferented hand was disrupted. Similarly, the first movements with the tool (a mechanical grabber elongating the arm by ~40 cm) showed an abnormal profile that tended to normalize at the end of the session. Subsequent free-hand movements were also normalized. At session 2, 6 months later, the patient exhibited normal free-hand kinematic profiles, additionally showing changes in grasping kinematics after tool-use, but no sign of tool incorporation. A follow-up 2 years later, further confirmed the normalized kinematic profile but the absence of tool incorporation. This first description of tool-use in absence of proprioception shows the fundamental role of proprioception in the update of the BS. These results provide an important further step in understanding human motor control and have implications for future development of rehabilitation programs for patients with sensory deficits.

Comparison of Shoulder Proprioception in Women with and without Generalized Joint Laxity

Objective Generalized joint hypermobility predisposes some individuals to a wide variety of musculoskeletal complaints, especially in the shoulder joint. Proprioception, which includes joint position sense and sense of movement, has an important role in the functional stability of shoulder joint. Given the critical role of proprioception in the functional stability of shoulder, the primary aim of this study was to compare shoulder joint position sense and sense of movement (kinesthesia) between individuals with and without general joint hyper mobility. The secondary aim of this study was to compare proprioception between dominant and non-dominant sides in each group. Materials & Methods In this causal-comparative study, 20 females with generalized joint laxity (Mean[SD] age=22.05[2.30] y) and 20 females without generalized joint laxity (Mean[SD] age=22.65[2.53] y) participated in the study. Testing was performed in the supine position. Prior to beginning each proprioception tests, the participants were given to practice trials to become familiar with the testing procedure. Proprioception tests were performed during passive repositioning and kinesthesia using an isokinetic dynamometer. The shoulder external rotation range was measured with a standard goniometer, and 90% of its range was considered as a target angle in passive reposition test. The kinesthetic sense of the shoulder was evaluated by measuring the threshold for passive external rotation. The speed of threshold to detection of passive motion test was at 0.5 deg/s and passive reproduction of joint position was at 2 deg/s. Both dominant and non-dominant sides of all the subjects were evaluated. Test sequences for measuring the threshold to detection of passive motion and passive reproduction of joint position, as well as dominant and non-dominant shoulder were random. The blindfold and headphones were used to remove visual and auditory feedback. The mean of three repetitions of passive reproduction of target angle and threshold to detection of passive motion were calculated. Independent t-test was used to compare joint position sense and kinesthesia between females with and without generalized joint lax ity, and paired t test was used to statistically analyze differences between dominant and non-dominant sides in each group. Results No significant difference was observed in joint position test acuity and of detection of motion in each of dominant and non-dominant sides between females with and without generalized joint laxity (dominant side: P=0.47, non-dominant: P=0.70). Females with generalized joint laxity exhibited significantly larger errors in passive joint reproduction tests in both dominant and non-dominant sides (P=0.001) compared with those without generalized joint laxity. Conclusion The results revealed that the angle repositioning sense in the extreme range of shoulder joints in females with generalized joint laxity is reduced compared to those without generalized joint laxity. Lower joint position test acuity in females with generalized joint laxity may relate to the disturbance or loss of sensory messages from joint receptors to the central nervous system. Reduced proprioception feedback may lead to biomechanically unsound limb positions being adopted. Such a mechanism may allow acceleration of degenerative joint conditions and may account for the increased prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints seen in subjects with generalized joint laxity. A B S T R A C T

The Morphological & Biomechanical Characteristics of the Ligamentum Mucosum and its Potential Role in Anterior Knee Pain

IntroductionThe ligamentum mucosum (LM), or infrapatellar plica, is a non‐isometric structure of the knee joint that traverses from the intercondylar notch of the femur to the infrapatellar fat pad. The LM is composed of dense regular connective tissue, of which four different morphologies have been identified: separate, vertical septum, split, and fenestrated. Microscopically, pathological LM appears fibrotic and calcified, which can lead to impingement, and ultimately may be implicated in the pathogenesis of anterior knee pain. The specific aims of this study are to investigate the anatomical relationship of the LM to neighboring structures, determine whether the histological characteristics of the LM further define its function and its potential role in proprioception, and lastly to perform an in vitro biomechanical analysis of the LM under normal physiological loading.MethodologyFresh‐frozen cadaveric knee specimens (n=14) were dissected to reveal the structures of the joint capsule and to identify the morphology of the ligamentum mucosum. With the knee at 90° flexion, four measurements were recorded in order to examine the important relationships within the joint capsule. The intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the consistency and reproducibility of the measurements recorded. Maintaining the proximal and distal attachments, two specimens were harvested for histological analysis using standard hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome for collagen, and mono‐clonal mouse anti‐human neurofilament protein to identify neurons and peripheral nerve endings.ResultsOverall, 64% of the knees had a LM present. With respect to morphology, 50% of the 14 specimens had a separate type, 14% had a vertical septum type, and the remaining specimens had no LM present, which is consistent with known classification systems. The histological analysis confirmed the LM to be ligamentous, thus being composed of dense regular connective tissue. Preliminary immunohistochemistry results are inconclusive at this time for evidence of peripheral nerves and nerve endings, and the biomechanical properties of LM have yet to be determined.DiscussionThe role of LM in anterior knee pain is not well documented; however, studies have shown that excising the LM can relieve idiopathic anterior knee pain. With a decrease in elasticity, pathological LM may result in patellar maltracking and instability, ultimately triggering anterior knee pain. Future biomechanical testing will utilize an Instron materials testing machine to load the ligaments under tension at a constant velocity in order to determine the force at which the specimen fails. Thus, the findings from this study can be implemented in models of anterior knee pain, more specifically models of patellar instability and maltracking, to determine the proprioceptive and pathogenic mechanisms of the ligamentum mucosum.

Generalization of force-field adaptation in proprioceptively-deafferented subjects

Humans have the remarkable ability to adapt their motor behaviour to changes in body properties and/or environmental conditions, based on sensory feedback such as vision and proprioception. The role of proprioception has been highlighted for the adaptation to new upper-limb dynamics, which is known to generalize to the opposite, non-adapted limb in healthy individuals. Such interlimb transfer seems to depend on sensory feedback, and the present study assessed whether the chronic loss of proprioception precludes interlimb transfer of dynamic adaptation by testing two well-characterized proprioceptively-deafferented subjects. These had to reach toward visual targets with vision of the limb. For both deafferented subjects, we observed adaptation of the dominant arm to Coriolis forces and after-effects on non-dominant arm movements in different movement directions, thus indicating interlimb transfer. Overall, our findings show that motor learning can generalize across limbs and movement directions despite the loss of proprioceptive afferents.

The Right Supramarginal Gyrus Is Important for Proprioception in Healthy and Stroke-Affected Participants: A Functional MRI Study.

Human proprioception is essential for motor control, yet its central processing is still debated. Previous studies of passive movements and illusory vibration have reported inconsistent activation patterns related to proprioception, particularly in high-order sensorimotor cortices. We investigated brain activation specific to proprioception, its laterality, and changes following stroke. Twelve healthy and three stroke-affected individuals with proprioceptive deficits participated. Proprioception was assessed clinically with the Wrist Position Sense Test, and participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. An event-related study design was used, where each proprioceptive stimulus of passive wrist movement was followed by a motor response of mirror ­copying with the other wrist. Left (LWP) and right (RWP) wrist proprioception were tested separately. Laterality indices (LIs) were calculated for the main cortical regions activated during proprioception. We found proprioception-related brain activation in high-order sensorimotor cortices in healthy participants especially in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG LWP z = 4.51, RWP z = 4.24) and the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd LWP z = 4.10, RWP z = 3.93). Right hemispheric dominance was observed in the SMG (LI LWP mean 0.41, SD 0.22; RWP 0.29, SD 0.20), and to a lesser degree in the PMd (LI LWP 0.34, SD 0.17; RWP 0.13, SD 0.25). In stroke-affected participants, the main difference in proprioception-related brain activation was reduced laterality in the right SMG. Our findings indicate that the SMG and PMd play a key role in proprioception probably due to their role in spatial processing and motor control, respectively. The findings from stroke-­affected individuals suggest that decreased right SMG function may be associated with decreased proprioception. We recommend that clinicians pay particular attention to the assessment and rehabilitation of proprioception following right hemispheric lesions.

Gait Variability in Chronic Back Pain Sufferers With Experimentally Diminished Visual Feedback: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACTIncreased gait variability is common in chronic low back pain patients, which is a sign of their diminished proprioceptive feedback. When proprioceptive information is reduced, vision partly takes over the role of proprioception. Therefore, a loss of visual feedback would have a more negative effect in individuals with diminished proprioception. To test this hypothesis, 14 healthy individuals and 14 chronic low back pain patients walked with and without impairment goggles manipulating visual feedback. The variability of stride time, stride length, and minimum foot clearance was evaluated. The authors observed an interaction effect regarding minimum foot clearance variability indicating that pain patients showed higher gait variability with manipulated visual feedback. Reduced vision may cause exceeded tripping risk in individuals with diminished proprioception.

The role of internal forward models and proprioception in hand position estimation.

Our ability to properly move and react in different situations is largely dependent on our perception of our limbs' position. At least three sources- vision, proprioception, and internal forward models (FMs)- seem to contribute to this perception. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of each source has not been studied individually. Specifically, role of FM has been ignored in some previous studies. We hypothesized that FM has a critical role in subjects' perception which needs to be considered in the relevant studies to obtain more reliable results. Therefore, we designed an experiment with the goal of investigating FM and proprioception role in subjects' perception of their hand's position. Three groups of subjects were recruited in the study. Based on the experiment design, it was supposed that subjects in different groups relied on proprioception, FM, and both of them for estimating their unseen hand's position. Comparing the results of three groups revealed significant difference between their estimation' errors. FM provided minimum estimation error, while proprioception had a bias error in the tested region. Integrating proprioception with FM decreased this error. Integration of two Gaussian functions, fitted to the error distribution of FM and proprioception groups, was simulated and created a mean error value almost similar to the experimental observation. These results suggest that FM role needs to be considered when studying the perceived position of the limbs. This can lead to gain better insights into the mechanisms underlying the perception of our limbs' position which might have potential clinical and rehabilitation applications, e.g., in the postural control of elderly which are at high risk of falls and injury because of deterioration of their perception with age.

The role of proprioception and neuromuscular stability in carpal instabilities.

Carpal stability has traditionally been defined as dependent on the articular congruity of joint surfaces, the static stability maintained by intact ligaments, and the dynamic stability caused by muscle contractions resulting in a compression of joint surfaces. In the past decade, a fourth factor in carpal stability has been proposed, involving the neuromuscular and proprioceptive control of joints. The proprioception of the wrist originates from afferent signals elicited by sensory end organs (mechanoreceptors) in ligaments and joint capsules that elicit spinal reflexes for immediate joint stability, as well as higher order neuromuscular influx to the cerebellum and sensorimotor cortices for planning and executing joint control. The aim of this review is to provide an understanding of the role of proprioception and neuromuscular control in carpal instabilities by delineating the sensory innervation and the neuromuscular control of the carpus, as well as descriptions of clinical applications of proprioception in carpal instabilities.

Reliability and measurement precision of concentric-to-isometric and eccentric-to-isometric knee active joint position sense tests in uninjured physically active adults

ObjectivesProprioception is important because it is used by the central nervous system to mediate muscle control of joint stability, posture, and movement. Knee active joint position sense (AJPS) is one representation of knee proprioception. The purpose of this study was to establish the intra-tester, inter-session, test–retest reliability of concentric-to-isometric (seated knee extension; prone knee flexion) and eccentric-to-isometric (seated knee flexion; prone knee extension) knee AJPS tests in uninjured adults. DesignDescriptive. SettingUniversity laboratory. ParticipantsSix males, six females (age 26.2 ± 5.7 years; height 171.1 ± 9.6 cm; mass 71.1 ± 16.6 kg). Main Outcome MeasuresMean absolute error (AE; °); intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (2,1); standard error of measurement (SEM; °). ResultsMean AE ranged from 3.18° to 5.97° across tests. The ICCs and SEMs were: seated knee extension 0.13, 1.3°; prone knee flexion 0.51, 1.2°; seated knee flexion 0.31, 1.7°; prone knee extension 0.87, 1.4°. ConclusionsThe prone knee flexion and prone knee extension tests demonstrated moderate to good reliability. Prone knee flexion and prone knee extension AJPS tests may be useful in cross-sectional studies estimating how proprioception contributes to knee functional joint stability or prospective studies estimating the role of proprioception in the onset of knee injury.

El papel de la propiocepción y el control neuromuscular en las inestabilidades del carpo

Articular joint congruity, static stability secondary to ligament integrity and dynamic joint surface compression due to muscular contraction have been defined classically as the key for carpal stability. Recently, a fourth factor in carpal stability has been proposed, involving the neuromuscular and proprioceptive control of joints. Proprioception of the wrist starts in sensory end organs located in ligaments and joint capsules (mechanoreceptors). When mechanoreceptors are stimulated, an afferent signal causes an involuntary spinal reflex that induces a selective muscular contraction in order to protect from ligament injury. The aim of this review is to provide an understanding of the role of proprioception and neuromuscular control in carpal instabilities, as well as descriptions of potential clinical applications.

Proprioceptive feedback contributes to the adaptation toward an economical gait pattern

Humans generally prefer gait patterns with a low metabolic cost, but it is unclear how such patterns are chosen. We have previously proposed that humans may use proprioceptive feedback to identify economical movement patterns. The purpose of the present experiments was to investigate the role of plantarflexor proprioception in the adaptation toward an economical gait pattern. To disrupt proprioception in some trials, we applied noisy vibration (randomly varying between 40–120Hz) over the bilateral Achilles tendons while participants stood quietly or walked on a treadmill. For all 10min walking trials, the treadmill surface was initially level before slowly increasing to a 2.5% incline midway through the trial without participant knowledge. During standing posture, noisy vibration increased sway, indicating decreased proprioception accuracy. While walking on a level surface, vibration did not significantly influence stride period or metabolic rate. However, vibration had clear effects for the first 2–3min after the incline increase; vibration caused participants to walk with shorter stride periods, reduced medial gastrocnemius (MG) activity during mid-stance (30–65% stance), and increased MG activity during late-stance (65–100% stance). Over time, these metrics gradually converged toward the gait pattern without vibration. Likely as a result of this delayed adaptation to the new mechanical context, the metabolic rate when walking uphill was significantly higher in the presence of noisy vibration. These results may be explained by the disruption of proprioception preventing rapid identification of muscle activation patterns which allow the muscles to operate under favorable mechanical conditions with low metabolic demand.

On the Role of Proprioception in Making Free Throws in Basketball

Purpose: The aim of this article was to investigate the role that proprioception of the upper limb plays in making basketball free throws. Method: We designed an experiment to directly correlate the performance of basketball players in a free-throw task and an elbow- and wrist-joint position sense task. Results: We found a moderately high correlation between the free-throw success rate and wrist-joint position sense and a moderate correlation between the free-throw success rate and elbow-joint position sense. In both cases, the most successful shooters also had the best proprioceptive results. Conclusions: The results indicate that free-throw success is, at least partly, determined by players' ability to sense the position of the distal joints of their throwing upper limb. From a motor-control point of view, this suggests that basketball players may organize the compensatory behavior between the joints of their free-throwing arm on the basis of proprioception. From a practical point of view, it points toward new training techniques to enhance free-throwing efficiency.