title: Are there any relationships among ankle proprioception acuity, pre-landing ankle muscle responses, and landing impact in man?
abstract: Proprioceptive input has been suggested to contribute to the pre-landing muscle responses associated with drop-landing, but its precise role has yet to be delineated. This study set out to examine the relationships among ankle proprioception, pre-landing muscle responses, and landing impact on drop-landing in healthy man. Fifteen healthy male basketball players aged 18 to 26 participated in this study. Passive ankle joint repositioning errors were used to examine ankle joint proprioception. Pre-landing EMG responses in the ankle muscles and the impact force on landing were recorded while the players performed self-initiated drops from a height of 30 cm. Results demonstrated that averaged ankle repositioning errors were significantly correlated with the co-contraction indexes between left tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles (TA/MG CoI) (r=0.67, p=0.006), and showed a trend towards a relationship with the right TA/MG CoI (r=0.47, p=0.079). TA/MG CoI from both ankles were further related to the magnitude of the total impact force on landing (r=0.54 and 0.53, respectively; p<0.05). We concluded that male basketball players with less accurate ankle joint sense adopted greater co-contraction of ankle dorsiflexors and platarflexors, which was in turn associated with greater impact force at the moment of landing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR), China.
authors.forename: Siu Ngor
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Christina Wan Ying
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hui-Chan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000842:Ankle / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology