Evaluation of the relative contribution of peripheral and focal vision to proprioceptive differentiation of underfoot inversion angles in young elite athletes

Different visual conditions during proprioceptive testing have the potential to mask clinically meaningful differences in proprioceptive acuity, and must be understood in order to improve testing accuracy. This study compared the proprioceptive acuity achieved in estimating underfoot surface angles when looking ahead vs looking down during an active stepping task. 40 athletes from national development squads (23 male, 17 female, M age = 16 yr.) judged the inversion angle of a footplate when stepping onto and across it. 19 participants were permitted to briefly look down and see the footplate before stepping onto it, while 21 looked ahead and saw the footplate only in peripheral vision as they walked across. Looking down before stepping contributed to higher proprioceptive acuity scores. These results indicate that during a stepping task, a short opportunity to assess ground angle with focal vision supports the peripheral sensory receptors in proprioceptive acuity to a greater extent than peripheral vision alone.

Ability to discriminate movements at multiple joints around the body: global or site-specific

This study tested whether proprioceptive discrimination of movement is a global, general ability, or an attribute that is specific to the joint tested. 40 right-handed, healthy, young adults (19 men, 21 women; M age = 20.4 yr., SD = 1.7) volunteered. A battery of versions of the Active Movement Extent Discrimination Apparatus (AMEDA) were employed to generate the stimuli for movements of different extents at the ankle, knee, spine, shoulder, and finger; discrimination accuracy scores were derived from participants' responses. No significant correlations were found between the discrimination scores from the five sites (all rs < or = .21, all ps > or = .20). This finding extends a previous report of non-significantly correlated proprioception test scores at two lower limb sites, and the findings taken together suggest that rather than proprioception being a global, general ability, sensitivity to the proprioception that underlies movement control is site-specific.