Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 508, Issue 1, 29 January 1990, Pages 176-179
Brain Research

Anticipatory postural adjustment in the absence of normal peripheral feedback

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(90)91135-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The responses to voluntary unloading (by the subject's contralateral arm) and imposed unloading (by the experimenter) of a 1 kg weight supported at the wrist were studied in normal volunteers (controls) and in a deafferented subject (patient). The patient had no touch, pressure or kinesthetic sensations in either of the arms, but the motor nerve fibers were unaffected. The reflex activity generated by imposed unloading in the controls was never observed in the patient. The displacement's amplitude of the unloaded forearm was 3 × smaller with voluntary than with imposed unloading. In both the controls and the patient, the displacement was of similar amplitude and preceded by an anticipatory postural adjustment. It is concluded that this postural adjustment is of central origin since it can be generated in the absence of peripheral feedback.

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This work was supported by a Group grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada. R..F. is a ‘chercheur-boursier’ of the Fonds de la Recherche en Santédu Québec.

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