The sensation of passive movement at the metatarso‐phalangeal joint of the great toe in man

Abstract

This work was begun as an investigation into the characteristics of passive movement sense at the metatarso-phalangeal joint. Since the original work of Goldscheider (1889), other investigators (Winter, 1912; Laidlaw & Hamilton, 1937 a, b;Cleghorn & Darcus, 1952) have investigated joint sensation in normal subjects by measuring the response to a continuous movement. Their work established the existence of threshold speeds of movement, varyingwith different joints in different subjects, below which sensation of movement in a relaxed limb was either absent, or present irregularly and inconstantly.In the present investigation speeds were used considerably above the threshold values, but not so fast as to introduce complications resulting from variations in reaction times. The toe was displaced at a uniform angular rate and the subject responded as soon as the sensation of displacement was appreciated. The results were expressed in degrees of joint rotation, hereafter called the reaction angle. The experiment was carried out on eighty-four volunteer subjects, all medical students, in an endeavour to establish a normal range for sensation of passive movement.An initial investigation was carried out to test whether the reaction angles did in fact represent a true sensation and were not distributed at random. An analysis of variance carried out on the data left no doubt that the reaction angles represented a real measurement; some variability was shown within the scores for each foot of each subject and between the averages of the two feet of the same subject, but far greater variability was present between average scores for different individuals. Further, this initial investigation revealed no significant differences between reaction angles for the same subject at the three different speeds used (0.2, 1 and 2°/sec), although, at the slowest speed, judgement of the moment at which unequivocal sensation of movement

Proprioceptive space perception after anaesthetization of the mid-interphalangeal joint of the finger

“…Experiments such as those of Gelfan and Carter (1967), who artificially manipulated muscle length and tension by pulling on surgically exposed tendons, are considered to be employing passive movements, since the movements are not actively induced by the subject. However, different results are obtained when active movement is employed (Browne et al, 1954;Lloyd & Caldwell, 1965;Merton, 1964), the anesthetized judgments were made, F(4,44) = 3.66, p < .05. When the sum of squares for trials was partitioned (Rodger, 1965), the linear component of the trend was found to be significant, F (1,44) = 13.84, p < .001, whereas the residual component was not, F(3,44) = 0.26, P > .05.…”

“…Studies using passive movement of the extremities following anesthesia (Browne et al, 1954;Gelfan & Carter, 1967;Merton, 1964;Provins, 1958) seem to suggest that muscle spindle receptors are not responsible for any sense of passive movement, whether the paradigm calls for perception of the position of the limb in space or threshold of movement. Experiments such as those of Gelfan and Carter (1967), who artificially manipulated muscle length and tension by pulling on surgically exposed tendons, are considered to be employing passive movements, since the movements are not actively induced by the subject.…”

“…Since Goldscheider (1898) proposed that the joints contributed more than the muscles to the perception of movement, two different paradigms have been used to study the kinestheticproprioceptive modality. The contradictory reports concerning whether or not muscle afferents are involved in space perception (Browne, Lee, & Ring, 1954;Lloyd & Caldwell, 1965;Mountcastle & Powell, 1959;Provins, 1958) may have arisen from a confusion in interpreting the data collected by these methods. The first is concerned with the perception of the limb in space once it has been positioned, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and the second is concerned with the thresholds of movement.…”

Posterior Column Dysfunction in Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

“…Subsequently, Wall and Noordenbos (1977) studied three patients with surgically confirmed lesions of the dorsal columns and after testing sensation in a variety of ways concluded that there was no loss of the classical primary modalities of sensation but loss of an ability to carry out tasks where one must simultaneously analyze spatial and temporal characteristics of the stimulus. A review of their methods of testing for JPS suggests that it was probably markedly or completely lost especially since one can accurately detect 0.5 degrees of movement at the hip even after total hip replacement surgery (Karenjia and Ferguson, 1983) and 4.4 degrees of movement at the great toe (Browne et al, 1954). In the case of vibration sense, Calne and Pallis (1966) propose that it represents a temporal modulation of tactile sense, that it is not a specific "modality," that the relevant impulses ascend in both the dorsal and lateral columns, and that the physiological implications of "posterior column signs'' are redundant as they are based upon inadequate clinicopathological correlations.…”

A kinesthesiometer for assessing digital passive movement sensitivity in man

“…Systems as diverse ashydraulic (Goldscheider, 1889;Horch, Clark, & Burgess, 1975), electromechanical (Browne, Lee, & Ring, 1954;Gandevia & McCloskey, 1976;Kokmen, Bossemeyer, & Williams, 1977), and even manual (Laidlaw & Hamilton, 1937) have all been used. Similarly, there have been wide differences in the techniques used to measure the angular displacement threshold, including reading the values from a scale (Browne et al, 1954;Goldscheider, 1889;Laidlaw & Hamilton, 1937), from an ink-writer deflection (proportional to the angular displacement) (Gandevia & McCloskey, 1976;Horch et al, 1975), and even from a minicomputer digital display (Kokmen et al, 1977). Of equal importance with the differences in measurement technique is the fact that none of the systems used so far has included a brake mechanism to terminate rotation when the response is made.…”