Background Proprioception refers to the perception of motion and position of the body or body segments in space. A wide range of proprioceptive tests exists, although tests dynamically evaluating sensorimotor integration during upper limb movement are scarce. We introduce a novel task to evaluate kinesthetic proprioceptive function during complex upper limb movements using a robotic device. We aimed to evaluate the test–retest reliability of this newly developed Dynamic Movement Reproduction (DMR) task. Furthermore, we assessed reliability of the commonly used Joint Reposition (JR) task of the elbow, evaluated the association between both tasks, and explored the influence of visual information (viewing arm movement or not) on performance during both tasks. Methods During the DMR task, participants actively reproduced movement patterns while holding a handle attached to the robotic arm, with the device encoding actual position throughout movement. In the JR task, participants actively reproduced forearm positions; with the final arm position evaluated using an angle measurement tool. The difference between target movement pattern/position and reproduced movement pattern/position served as measures of accuracy. In study 1 (N = 23), pain-free participants performed both tasks at two test sessions, 24-h apart, both with and without visual information available (i.e., vision occluded using a blindfold). In study 2 (N = 64), an independent sample of pain-free participants performed the same tasks in a single session to replicate findings regarding the association between both tasks and the influence of visual information. Results The DMR task accuracy showed good-to-excellent test–retest reliability, while JR task reliability was poor: measurements did not remain sufficiently stable over testing days. The DMR and JR tasks were only weakly associated. Adding visual information (i.e., watching arm movement) had different performance effects on the tasks: it increased JR accuracy but decreased DMR accuracy, though only when the DMR task started with visual information available (i.e., an order effect). Discussion The DMR task’s highly standardized protocol (i.e., largely automated), precise measurement and involvement of the entire upper limb kinetic chain (i.e., shoulder, elbow and wrist joints) make it a promising tool. Moreover, the poor association between the JR and DMR tasks indicates that they likely capture unique aspects of proprioceptive function. While the former mainly captures position sense, the latter appears to capture sensorimotor integration processes underlying kinesthesia, largely independent of position sense. Finally, our results show that the integration of visual and proprioceptive information is not straightforward: additional visual information of arm movement does not necessarily make active movement reproduction more accurate, on the contrary, when movement is complex, vision appears to make it worse.

中文翻译：

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评估上肢的动觉本体感觉功能：使用机械臂的新型动态运动再现任务

背景 本体感觉是指对空间中身体或身体节段的运动和位置的感知。存在广泛的本体感受测试，尽管在上肢运动期间动态评估感觉运动整合的测试很少。我们介绍了一项新任务，以使用机器人设备在复杂的上肢运动过程中评估动觉本体感受功能。我们旨在评估这项新开发的动态运动再现 (DMR) 任务的重测可靠性。此外，我们评估了常用的肘关节重新定位 (JR) 任务的可靠性，评估了两项任务之间的关联，并探讨了视觉信息（是否查看手臂运动）对两项任务中表现的影响。方法 在 DMR 任务期间，参与者在握住连接在机械臂上的手柄的同时积极再现运动模式，该设备在整个运动过程中编码实际位置。在JR任务中，参与者积极再现前臂位置；使用角度测量工具评估最终的手臂位置。目标运动模式/位置与再现的运动模式/位置之间的差异用作准确度的衡量标准。在研究 1 (N = 23) 中，无痛参与者在两个测试阶段执行两项任务，间隔 24 小时，有和没有可用的视觉信息（即，使用眼罩遮挡视力）。在研究 2 (N = 64) 中，一个独立的无痛参与者样本在一个会话中执行了相同的任务，以复制关于两个任务之间的关联和视觉信息的影响的发现。结果 DMR 任务的准确性表现出从良好到优秀的重测信度，而 JR 任务的信度很差：测量在测试日内没有保持足够的稳定性。DMR 和 JR 任务只是弱相关。添加视觉信息（即观察手臂运动）对任务有不同的性能影响：它增加了 JR 准确度但降低了 DMR 准确度，尽管只有当 DMR 任务开始时有可用的视觉信息（即顺序效应）。讨论 DMR 任务的高度标准化协议（即大部分自动化）、精确测量和整个上肢动力学链（即肩部、肘部和腕关节）的参与使其成为一个很有前途的工具。此外，JR 和 DMR 任务之间的不良关联表明它们可能捕捉到本体感受功能的独特方面。虽然前者主要捕捉位置感，但后者似乎捕捉到了运动感觉背后的感觉运动整合过程，在很大程度上独立于位置感。最后，我们的研究结果表明，视觉和本体感受信息的整合并不简单：手臂运动的额外视觉信息并不一定会使主动运动再现更准确，相反，当运动复杂时，视觉似乎会使情况变得更糟。