Using touch or imagined touch to compensate for loss of proprioception: a case study.
Proprioception is the sense of the position of one's own body. Here, we present a case study of an individual with proprioceptive loss in one limb consequent to stroke. The patient indicated that merely touching his impaired arm with his unimpaired arm temporarily restored his proprioception. We examined this claim and the effects of imagined touch by the unimpaired arm. Assessments were made using three-dimensional tracking of reaching trajectories towards targets in conditions of light and darkness. Both actual and imagined touching significantly reduced movement error and jerk, specifically for targets located in regions that both hands would be able to reach.
Psychology Department, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA. jastev@wm.edu
Jennifer A
JA
Stevens
Whitney G
WG
Cole
Peter M
PM
Vishton
D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000502:physiology