Spinal Mechanisms for Sensorimotor Integration
Peripheral Sensory Neuronopathy
Peripheral sensory neuronopathy
A person with a disease that kills proprioceptive neurons has severe problems with the simplest of movements. The average person has no difficulty raising a coffee mug:
Source: Demo: proprioception makes raising a coffee mug easy (52 sec) | HHMI’s BioInteractive
Charles Freed has lost proprioceptive information and, consequently, has difficulty raising a coffee mug:
Source: Without proprioception, raising a mug is difficult (1 min 38 sec) | HHMI’s BioInteractive
In the absence of proprioceptive feedback, some individuals can compensate by using visual feedback:
Source: Ian Waterman: Compensating for proprioceptive loss (1 min 41 sec) | HHMI’s BioInteractive
Proprioceptive feedback makes it easy to touch one’s thumb to one’s fingers without looking:
Source: Demo: Touching thumb to fingers with proprioception (56 sec) | HHMI’s BioInteractive
In the absence of proprioception and visual feedback, it is impossible to touch thumb to fingers accurately.
Source: Waterman touching thumb to fingers without proprioception (1 min 15 sec) | HHMI’s BioInteractive
