proprioception (redirected from kinesthetics)

proprioception

Perception of stimuli relating to position, posture, equilibrium, or internal condition. Receptors (nerve endings) in skeletal muscles and on tendons provide constant information on limb position and muscle action for coordination of limb movements. Awareness of equilibrium changes usually involves perception of gravity. In humans, gravity, position, and orientation are registered by tiny grains called otoliths moving within two fluid-filled sacs in the inner ear in response to any change in position or orientation. Their motion is detected by sense hairs. Rotation is detected by the inertial lag of fluid in the semicircular canals acting on the sense hairs. The central nervous system integrates signals from the canals to perceive rotation in three dimensions. See also sense.

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proprioception [‚prō·prē·ə′sep·shən]

(physiology)

The reception of internal stimuli.

(psychology)

Sensory awareness of one's location with regard to the external environment.

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Proprioception

The sense of position and movement of the limbs and the sense of muscular tension. The awareness of the orientation of the body in space and the direction, extent, and rate of movement of the limbs depend in part upon information derived from sensory receptors in the joints, tendons, and muscles. Information from these receptors, called proprioceptors, is normally integrated with that arising from vestibular receptors (which signal gravitational acceleration and changes in velocity of movements of the head), as well as from visual, auditory, and tactile receptors. Sensory information from certain proprioceptors, particularly those in muscles and tendons, need not reach consciousness, but can be used by the motor system as feedback to guide postural adjustments and control of well-practiced or semiautomatic movements such as those involved in walking.

Receptors for proprioception are the endings of peripheral nerve fibers within the capsule or ligaments of the joints or within muscle. These endings are associated with specialized end organs such as Pacinian corpuscles, Ruffini's cylinders, and Golgi organs (the latter resembling histologic Golgi structures in the skin), and muscle spindles. See Cutaneous sensation, Sensation, Somesthesis