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Faulty proprioceptive information disrupts motor imagery: an experimental study
Katherine McCormick1, Nadia Zalucki, Megan Hudson
1The University of Queensland, Australia.
Question:
Does faulty proprioceptive input disrupt the internal model of the body that the brain uses to control movement?
Design:
Randomised, within-participant experimental study.
Participants:
Twenty-two (13 F) healthy adults.
Intervention:
Participants performed a motor imagery task that involved making left/right judgements of pictured right and left hands in 16 different postures under five conditions involving stimuli being applied to the experimental (L) hand. The five conditions were: vibration (of the wrist extensor tendons to elicit the illusion of wrist flexion), sham (vibration of the ulna styloid), active flexion, passive flexion, and control (no stimulus).
Outcome Measures:
Accuracy and response time of the control (R) hand in making left/right judgements of the pictures.
Results:
Response time during vibration was longer for those who reported the illusion of wrist flexion (n = 18) than for those who did not (p < 0.01) whereas accuracy was unaffected (p = 0.71). In those who reported the illusion, accuracy was unaffected by condition, hand or picture (p > 0.21). Response time during vibration was 910 ms longer (95% CI 730 to 1090) for pictures of the experimental (L) hand (mean 2731 ms, 95% CI 2543 to 2918) than it was for pictures of the control (R) hand (mean 1822 ms, 95% CI 1634 to 2009), and approximately 580 ms longer (95% CI 380 to 785) for pictures of either hand during any other condition (p < 0.025).
Conclusion:
Faulty proprioceptive input disrupted this motor imagery task, which suggests it can disrupt the model of the limb that the brain uses for movement.
