title: Proprioceptive precision is impaired in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
abstract: It has been suggested that people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), or other similar connective tissue disorders, may have proprioceptive impairments, the reason for which is still unknown. We recently found that EDS patients were less precise than healthy controls when estimating their felt hand's position relative to visible peripheral reference locations, and that this deficit was positively correlated with the severity of joint hypermobility. We further explore proprioceptive abilities in EDS by having patients localize their non-dominant left hand at a greater number of workspace locations than in our previous study. Additionally, we explore the relationship between chronic pain and proprioceptive sensitivity. We found that, although patients were just as accurate as controls, they were not as precise. Patients showed twice as much scatter than controls at all locations, but the degree of scatter did not positively correlate with chronic pain scores. This further supports the idea that a proprioceptive impairment pertaining to precision is present in EDS, but may not relate to the magnitude of chronic pain.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada ; Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Holly A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Clayton
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie A H
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada ; Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada ; School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada.
authors.forename: Denise Y P
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Henriques
keywords: Chronic pain; Connective tissue disorders; Ehlers–Danlos syndrome; Joint hypermobility; Joint position sense; Proprioception; Proprioceptive sensitivity