Quantitative assessment of position sense at the ankle: a functional approach

We studied position sense at the ankle in 22 normal subjects to develop a functionally meaningful method of identifying mild position sense loss in individuals with suspected posterior column disease. Subjects were asked to match the angular displacement of a passively positioned reference foot. The subjects tried to improve performance by training sessions and visual feedback during the task. The subjects made accurate matches over a wide range of positions, with an average error of about 3 degrees. These methods can be used to provide a sensitive assessment of proprioception.