Age-related declines in the detection of passive wrist movement

Age-related changes in proprioceptive ability and their contributions to postural instability have been well documented. In contrast, and despite the known importance of proprioceptive feedback in the control of coordinated arm and hand movement, studies focusing on upper limb proprioception in older populations are few and equivocal in their findings. This study focused on kinesthetic awareness about the wrist joint in healthy young and older adults. Passive movement detection thresholds (PMDTs) were twice as high in older compared to young participants. In contrast to previous findings demonstrating asymmetries in static position sense, PMDT did not differ between the dominant and non-dominant wrist joints nor did direction of joint displacement affect PMDT as has been reported for the lower limb. Preliminary analysis indicated that PMDT was significantly higher in older adults categorized as sedentary while active older adults were able to detect passive movement as well as young adults. These findings demonstrate that upper limb kinesthesia is impaired in older adults although the degree of impairment may be influenced by one's level of physical activity.