Proprioception from the word…Proprio..the Latin word for “SELF”

Proprioception is referred to as the sixth sense;  and is Body position; and is the movement and posture, involving feedback to the “Brain” from the body. However this information is not always conscious feedback.

What is Proprioception??

Our proprioception is our sense of how our body is positioned and moving in space. This awareness is produced by part of the “somatic sensory system,”  and involves structures called (Proprioception in the muscles, the tendons, and the joints and ligaments) and those being the systems that monitor changes in their length, tension levels, and pressure linked to change in position.

Proprioceptors send impulses to the brain. Upon processing this information a decision can be made to change position or to stop moving. The brain then sends signals back to the muscles based on the input from the proprioceptors…completing the feedback cycles.

Bicep muscles move through an elongation or contraction and your brain is aware of movements. These signals go to the Sensory Cortex and processes input from the muscle’s biceps.

The Sensory neurons carry sensory information to the brain. Muscle spindle fibers detect changes to the length of muscles. Positional sensors is information from proprioceptors such as muscle spindle fibers that are sent to the brain for processing. There are also positional sensors in the joints, load sensors within the tendons and muscle stretch detectors all working together to create an image of the body position.

Types of proprioception information is either made conscious or processed unconsciously.

For example: Keeping and adjusting balance is generally an unconscious process. Conscious Proprioception usually involves some kind of Cortical processing resulting in decision making. This normally ends in a command to the muscles to perform a movement. The sheer amount of proprioceptive input means that much is processed unconsciously.

Proprioception Pathways;

Conscious proprioception uses the “dorsal column medial leminiscus pathway,” which passes through the thalamus and ends up in the “PARIETAL LOBE” of the Cortex. Unconscious proprioception involves the SPINO-CEREBELLULAR TRACTS and ends up in the cerebellum, in the back of the skull involved with control of movement.

Phantom Limbs;

When someone has a part of the body amputated or removed and,  be it a limb an extremity or an organ, such as an appendix, they sometimes continue to have sensations, often including pain, in that area. Research has linked this to changes in the sensory cortex undergoes a remapping process in which the area “take over” so that stimuli in these areas are felt as sensations in the area that has been lost. This reorganization of the Cortex has been confirmed through imaging studies.

Before Amputation; Sensory inputs from the arm and hand are connected to the appropriate regions of the sensory cortex. Other parts of the body are also connected to specific neighboring cortical regions.

However….AFTER AMPUTATION there is no sensory input from the amputated arm and hand but the pathways to the Cortex remains, input from another part of the body takes over, reshaping the sensory map which may produce sensations.

Phantom Limb Pain Treatment …..

Research has shown that the development of the phantom pain is linked to the “PLASTICITY”  of the sensory cortex. Trying to reverse the changes in the Cortex can actually reduce the pain sensation for the patient. For instance; use of an electric prosthetic limb that is moved by signals from the patience muscles was helpful. Brain scans revealed this was linked with reversion of the Cortex to it’s origin state maybe by replacing some of the original input.

Mirror Treatment; When a patient’s  remaining arm is shown in the mirror image and moved,…. it looks as though the missing arm is moving. Somehow this illusion can remove Phantom limb pain.

 

(Post Script about this above knowledge….It is remarkable to think that a arm that is not any long attached to muscles, neuron, pathways, and is totally amputated can be healed by the illusion of it being attached. To me that shows in studies how remarkable the brain really is. CDH)

 

PS….Be ever so careful with a human brain, in a child and when developing in utero, or in young years of development. They are open to suggestion, their brain is learning and experimenting at a pace, never to be returned again throughout life. These young children are absolutely miraculous little beings.