BACKGROUND Impaired cervical joint position sense and balance are associated with neck pain. Specific therapeutic exercise and manual therapy are effective for improving neck pain and functional ability but their effects on joint position sense and balance impairments remain uncertain. Changes in the joint position sense and balance may need to be addressed specifically. The primary objective i...

Reaching movements are comprised of the coordinated action across multiple joints. The human skeleton is redundant for this task because different joint configurations can lead to the same endpoint in space. How do people learn to use combinations of joints that maximize success in goal-directed motor tasks? To answer this question, we used a 3-degree-of-freedom manipulandum to measure shoulder...

This experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis that three-dimensional upper limb movements could be initiated and controlled in the joint space via a mechanism comparing an estimate of the current postural state of the upper arm with a target value determined by one specific inverse static transform converting the coordinates of the object into a set of arm, forearm, and wrist angles. T...

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of upper quadrant posture of young women with temporomandibular disorders. [Subjects] The participants were 19 female patients with temporomandibular disorders (patient group: mean age, 30.1 years) and 14 controls (control group: mean age, 24.6 years). [Methods] Outcome measures were the neck inclination angle (formed by a line conne...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate effects of therapeutic keyboard music playing on the finger function of subjects' hands through measurements of the joint position error test, surface electromyography, probe reaction time, and writing time. [Subjects and Methods] Ten subjects were divided randomly into experimental and control groups. The experimental group used ...

Proprioception is essential for shoulder neuromuscular control and shoulder stability. Exercise of the rotator cuff and scapulothoracic muscles is an important part of shoulder rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of rotator cuff and scapulothoracic muscle exercises on shoulder joint position sense. Thirty-six healthy subjects were recruited and randomly assig...

The representation of joint position at rest and during movement was investigated in 44 muscle spindle primary afferents originating from the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRb) and extensor digitorum (ED) of normal human subjects. Position sensitivity was estimated for each afferent, and 43 of 44 were position sensitive. In each trial, six sequential ramp-and-hold movements (2-6 degrees, 2 d...

AIM OF THE STUDY To evaluate the intersession reliability of a posturo-stabilometric examination. METHODS Single blind clinical trial conducted in two sessions over two weeks. 44 healthy volunteers free from postural and temporomandibular disorders. All the subjects complied with the criteria for completing the study. All the subjects underwent two sessions of posturo-stabilometric examinatio...