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SUMMARY
PROPRIOCEPTION IS AN IMPORTANT SOMATOSENSORY SUBSYSTEM THAT AFFECTS MOVEMENT. UNDERSTANDING PROPRIOCEPTION AND HOW IT IS AFFECTED BY INJURY, REHABILITATION, AND TRAINING IS CRUCIAL TO INSTITUTING EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS FOR TREATING AND PREVENTING INJURIES. THE AIM OF THIS ARTICLE WAS TO DISCUSS AND CLARIFY TERMINOLOGY AND CONCEPTS OF PROPRIOCEPTIVE FUNCTION AND HOW IT IS ADDRESSED IN THE CONTEXT OF SPORTS MEDICINE AND ATHLETIC CONDITIONING.
KEY WORDS:
proprioception; somatosensory; injury prevention; balance; proprioceptive exercise; neuromuscular training
INTRODUCTION
Powerful, precise, controlled movements are an integral part of sports activities and daily functional activities. The somatosensory system provides multiple inputs to the central nervous system (CNS) from various muscle and connective tissue receptors contributing to proprioception. In conjunction with vestibular and visual information, it allows us to maintain stability and move body segments efficiently, accurately, and effectively to accomplish a given task in a specific environment. This is, in a general sense, motor control (48). A thorough understanding of proprioceptive function is essential to understanding its contributions to, and implications for, sports injury rehabilitation and athletic conditioning and performance.
Several questions are pertinent to the topic under consideration in this article. First, what is proprioception? Second, is proprioceptive function diminished significantly enough from injury (or disease) to affect high-level function? Third, can proprioceptive function be improved through exercise or training? And finally, can so-called proprioceptive training or exercise prevent injury? The purpose of this article was to address these questions. Subsequently, it is hoped that the reader will have a more thorough understanding of what constitutes proprioceptive exercise/training if in fact such exercises/training actually exists.
WHAT IS PROPRIOCEPTION?
The term "proprioception" literally means to receive (-ception) one's own (propio-). Proprioception is a subsystem of the somatosensory system that also includes pain, touch, and temperature sensation from the skin and musculoskeletal structures (31). It is the body's own sense of position and motion, which includes body segment static position, displacement, velocity, acceleration, and muscular sense of force or effort (13,43). This sensory information is derived from changes to internal structures as opposed to external stimuli (exteroreception), such as chemicals or heat acting on the body (43,44). Signals derived from various sensory endings, that is, proprioceptors, in response to mechanical deformation are transformed into electrical impulses that are represented at...