Document Title: Horch-JNP-Nov75.shtml
Article Title: Awareness of Knee Joint Angle Under Static Conditions
Authors: K.W. Horch, F.J. Clark, and P.R. Burgess
Publication: Journal of Neurophysiology
Date: November 1975
Volume 42, pages 1436-1447
Keywords: kinesthetic sense, proprioception, limb position-in-space detection, sensory, feedback, servomechanism.

(Reference-denoting numbers appear in the same font and point size as the document text. As with all Knee Library documents, this article is provided in full-text form, complete with all figures and tables.)

Comments: This is one of the first articles dealing with research into proprioception (formerly known as kinesthetic sense). It provides interesting background insight, and it shows how the field has progressed. The authors first looked at skin-subsurface nerve endings via a simple indentation experiment. Then, they investigated how passively flexing and extending the knee very slowly was detected. They concluded that fairly accurate and non-fading receptors are present in the knee (although at that time little was known about the proprioceptive role of the knee ligaments). Today, it is known that the knee ligaments contain tension-sensitive nerve endings which are extremely important in keeping the brain apprised of goings-on in the knee (and by implication, in the leg as a whole). The human brain's motor-control system, including not only the muscle-activating nerves but also the sensory ones, is directly analogous to the servomechanisms found in all types of electromechanical equipment.

(Note: Summary at end. This older article has no abstract.)

HUMAN SUBJECTS are aware of the positions of their limbs under a variety of loading conditions, both while the limbs are moving (kinesthesia) and while they are stationary (static limb-position sense). Static limb-position sense is persistent; after the limbs have been motionless for many minutes there is still a clear appreciation of the angle of the knee, hip, elbow, and shoulder joints, although awareness of the positions of the fingers and toes is eventually lost (unpublished observations). These static sensations are at least grossly reliable, as can be verified by visual inspection of the limbs or by executing a movement with the perceived static position as the starting point.

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