Proprioception, our sense of body position, along with Kinaesthesia, our sense of movement, pro- vides our body with the ability to move smoothly without consciously thinking about every tiny movement , muscle contraction or change in our environment.
Examples of proprioception include being able to walk or kick without looking at your feet, or touching your nose with our finger with your eyes closed, brushing our hair without a mirror.
These subconscious physical abilities are referred to as Motor skills that we acquire through repartition and practice. The Brain’s Primary Motor Cortex, which is a part of our Central Nervous System receives Proprioception information from Proprioceptors (machenoreceptors) located in the joints, muscles, tendons and skin and transmitted via the Peripheral Nervous system. That infor- mation stream provides co-ordinates of limb movements and sequences of muscle contractions that the Brain uses to create a Motor Map, that over time is refined through repartition and practice until it is so well rehearsed that it can re replayed without constriction thought.
At that point, the ability becomes a Motor skill capable of autonomous activation.
Several things can affect proprioception. Injuries or medical conditions that affect the muscles, nerves and brain can cause long-term or permanent proprioception impairment. Age-related changes can also affect proprioception. Any loss of proprioception sensory signally directly affects our abil- ity to acquire new Motor Skills, refine and improve existing Skills or Rehabilitate those that are no longer fit for purpose due to injury or surgical related changes in musculoskeletal biomechanics.
Fortunately, Proprioception is a multi-channel and malleable system capable of Neuroplastic- ity, the ability to undergo maturation, change its structure and functionality in response to ex- perience or injury adaptation.
Because of its multi-channel nature, if the information from one type of proprioceptor is re- duced by age, damage, disease or degeneration, the signal can be increased by stimulating other
mechanoreceptors, and this is exactly what Brain Trainers do.
They recruit skin stretch mechanoreceptors to restore the full volume and flow of sensory information needed to quickly learn new motor skills or to help relearn skills that may have been lost or damaged due to stroke, dementia, surgery, or traumatic injury or degeneration.