Contribution of muscle proprioception to limb movement perception and proprioceptive decline with ageing. Issue 20 (April 2021) - Landelle, Caroline
Abstract : Perception of self-body movements relies on multiple senses among which muscle proprioception plays a crucial role. However, estimating its specific contribution is challenging given the difficulty to stimulate the deep muscle spindles independently from the skin and other tissues. Recent advances in psychophysical and neuroimaging studies that allow targeting muscle proprioception reveal (i) its specific contribution with respect to touch and vision, (ii) the interplay between bimanual proprioceptive signals and (iii) the sensorimotor cerebral network associated with movement illusion. Moreover, they highlight in older adults a larger decline in muscle proprioception than touch, which goes with structural alteration of cortical gray matter and corpus callosum, and with increased inter-network connectivity. These findings underline the importance to address disruption of sense of movement for both diagnosis and rehabilitation.