Two senses of human limb position: methods of measurement and roles in proprioception

The sense of position of the body and its limbs is a proprioceptive sense. Proprioceptors are concerned with monitoring the body’s own actions. Position sense is important because it is believed to contribute to our self-awareness. This review discusses recent developments in the debate about the sources of peripheral afferent signals contributing to position sense and describes different methods of measurement of position sense under conditions where vision does not participate. These include pointing to or verbal reporting of the perceived position of a hidden body part, alignment of one body part with the perceived position of another, or using memory-based repositioning tasks. The evidence suggests that there are at least two different mechanisms involved in the generation of position sense, mechanisms using different central processing pathways. The principal sensory receptor responsible for position sense is believed to be the muscle spindle. One criterion for identifying mechanism is whether position sense can be manipulated by controlled changes in spindle discharge rates. Position sense measured in two-limb matching is altered in a predictable way by such changes, while values for pointing and verbal reporting remain unresponsive. It is proposed that in two-limb matching the sensation generated is limb position in postural space. In pointing or verbal reporting, information is provided about limb position in extrapersonal space. Here vision is believed to play a role. The evidence suggests that we are aware, at the same time, of sensations of limb position in postural space as well as in extrapersonal space.