Contribution of Corollary Discharge in Elderly People with Peripheral Proprioception Deficit
YC01-YC03
Correspondence
Dr. Sivakumar Ramachandran,
No 12, Nellai appar second street, Bharathipuram, Chrompet, Chennai-600166, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-mail: rsivkumar@gmail.com
Introduction: Corollary discharge which is otherwise known as sense of effort is assumed to be the internal signal that arises from centrifugal motor command and that influences perception of movement. This provides proprioceptive cues during muscular activity, apart from the peripheral proprioceptive inputs. With ageing the peripheral proprioception acuity decreases.
Aim: To examine the contribution of sense of effort to compensate the deficit in peripheral proprioception.
Materials and Methods: Proprioception acuity was tested using an electronic goniometer by doing passive and active reposition test in the knee joint. A total of 20 elderly subjects with normal passive proprioception angle error (control group) and 10 elderly subjects with abnormal passive proprioception angle error (study group) were studied. Paired and unpaired t-tests were used to analyse the results.
Results: Between the groups passive error angles were statistically different (p<0.05). Subjects who had abnormal passive proprioception error did not show abnormal active proprioception error.
Conclusion: Active proprioception error angles are smaller than passive angle errors. An active proprioception error angle is not affected even when passive proprioception angle error is affected. The results suggested that, the sense of effort does compensate in the elderly for loss of peripheral proprioception.