The neural mechanisms underlying the sense of joint position and movement remain controversial. While cutaneous receptors are known to contribute to kinesthesia for the fingers, the present experiments test the hypothesis that they contribute at other major joints. Illusory movements were evoked at the interphalangeal (IP) joints of the index finger, the elbow, and the knee by stimulation of po...

Proprioceptive information about movement is transmitted to the central nervous system by a variety of receptor types, which are widely distributed among the muscles, joints, and skin. Muscle spindles are known to be an important and reliable source of information for the perception of movement kinematics. Previous studies that focused on the characteristics of single muscle spindle firing patt...

The medium-size intra-cranial arteries arising from the carotid bifurcation are prone to perinatal arterial ischemic strokes (PAIS). PAIS' physiopathology needs to be better understood to develop preventive and therapeutic interventions that are currently missing. We hypothesized that materno-fetal inflammation leads to a vasculitis affecting selectively the carotidian tree and promoting a foca...

BACKGROUND While there have been investigations into the reduced neck injury rate of wearing protective helmets, there is little information on its effects on normal kinaesthetic neck function. This study aims to quantify the kinaesthetic and movement effects of the American football helmet. METHODS Fifteen British Collegiate American football players (mean age 22.2, SD 1.9; BMI kg.m(2) 26.3,...

INTRODUCTION Arterial dissections are important causes of stroke in the young population. Dissection has been reported in association with some sports. It seems that this report is among the first ones of the cervical arterial dissection in a young swimmer. CASE PRESENTATION A 30-year-old male professional swimmer with no history of any major disease suddenly complained of severe ataxia, mode...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although the role of afferent input from cervical muscles on the control of posture and locomotion is recognised, it is surprising that there is an absence of data reporting whether joint position sense at the cervical level is impaired in older healthy adults. The present experiment was designed to address this issue. METHODS Eighteen young (mean age=23 yrs) and 18 older ...

OBJECTIVE To elucidate the effects of muscular fatigue on knee joint laxity and the neuromuscular characteristics of male and female athletes. We were particularly interested in determining whether such effects would be more pronounced in female athletes than in males participating in the same sport. DESIGN AND SETTING Subjects were assessed on 4 dependent variables during a rested and an iso...

Locomotion generates multisensory information about walked-upon objects. How perceptual systems use such information to get to know the environment remains unexplored. The ability to identify solid (e.g., marble) and aggregate (e.g., gravel) walked-upon materials was investigated in auditory, haptic or audio-haptic conditions, and in a kinesthetic condition where tactile information was perturb...

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are occurring at a higher rate in female athletes compared with their male counterparts. Research in the area of anterior cruciate ligament injury has increasingly focused on the role of joint proprioception and muscle activity in promoting knee joint stability. We measured knee joint laxity, joint kinesthesia, lower extremity balance, the amount of time requ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE There is scant population-based information on incidence and risk factors for ischemic stroke subtypes. METHODS We identified all 454 residents of Rochester, Minn, with a first ischemic stroke between 1985 and 1989 from the Rochester Epidemiology Project medical records linkage system. We used Stroke Data Bank criteria to assign infarct subtypes after reviewing medical ...