The sense of limb position is crucial for movement control and environmental interactions. Our understanding of this fundamental proprioceptive process, however, is limited. For example, little is known about the accuracy of arm proprioception: Does it vary with changes in arm configuration, since some peripheral receptors are engaged only when joints move toward extreme angles? Are these variations consistent across different tasks? Does proprioceptive ability change depending on what we try to localize (e.g., fingertip position vs. elbow angle)? We used a robot exoskeleton to study proprioception in 14 arm configurations across three tasks, asking healthy subjects to 1) match a pointer to elbow angles after passive movements, 2) match a pointer to fingertip positions after passive movements, and 3) actively match their elbow angle to a pointer. Across all three tasks, subjects overestimated more extreme joint positions; this may be due to peripheral sensory signals biasing estimates as a safety mechanism to prevent injury. We also found that elbow angle estimates were more precise when used to judge fingertip position versus directly reported, suggesting that the brain has better access to limb endpoint position than joint angles. Finally, precision of elbow angle estimates improved in active versus passive movements, corroborating work showing that efference copies of motor commands and alpha-gamma motor neuron coactivation contribute to proprioceptive estimates. In sum, we have uncovered fundamental aspects of normal proprioceptive processing, demonstrating not only predictable biases that are dependent on joint configuration and independent of task but also improved precision when integrating information across joints.

Background:Handwriting skills, which are crucial for success in school, communication, and build-

Distortions of body image have often been investigated in clinical disorders. Much of this literature implicitly assumes healthy adults maintain an accurate body image. We recently developed a novel, implicit, and quantitative measure of body image - the Body Image Task (BIT). Here, we report a large-scale analysis of performance on this task by healthy adults. In both an in-person and an online version of the BIT, participants were presented with an image of a head as an anchoring stimulus on a computer screen, and told to imagine that the head was part of a mirror image of themselves in a standing position. They were then instructed to judge where, relative to the head, each of several parts of their body would be located. The relative positions of each landmark can be used to construct an implicit perceptual map of bodily structure. We could thus measure the internally-stored body image, although we cannot exclude contributions from other representations. Our results show several distortions of body image. First, we found a large and systematic over-estimation of width relative to height. These distortions were similar for both males and females, and did not closely track the idiosyncrasies of individual participant's own bodies. Comparisons of individual body parts showed that participants overestimated the width of their shoulders and the length of their upper arms, relative to their height, while underestimating the lengths of their lower arms and legs. Principal components analysis showed a clear spatial structure to the distortions, suggesting spatial organisation and segmentation of the body image into upper and lower limb components that are bilaterally integrated. These results provide new insight into the body image of healthy adults, and have implications for the study and rehabilitation of clinical populations.

Background: Following spinal cord injury (SCI) or anaesthesia, people may continue to

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often involves sensory and motor problems, yet the proprioceptive sense of limb position has not been directly assessed. We used three tasks to assess proprioception in adolescents with ASD who had motor and sensory perceptual abnormalities, and compared them to age- and IQ-matched controls. Results showed no group differences in proprioceptive accuracy or precision during active or passive tasks. Both groups showed (a) biases in elbow angle accuracy that varied with joint position, (b) improved elbow angle precision for active versus passive tasks, and (c) improved precision for a fingertip versus elbow angle estimation task. Thus, a primary proprioceptive deficit may not contribute to sensorimotor deficits in ASD. Abnormalities may arise at later sensory processing stages.