Abstract
Proprioceptive organs signal to the CNS information about the relative positions of the body parts. Apart from pressure receptors in the soles of the feet, they do not supply any information as to the orientation of the body with respect to gravity; they only signal the position of one part of the body with respect to another. The receptors involved lie in the muscles (spindles and Golgi tendon organs), the joints and the skin. In this chapter, only the structure and characteristics of the afferent discharge will be summarized for each type of receptor. The possible roles of these receptors in the control of movement will be discussed in subsequent chapters. Despite its age, Matthews’s (1972) book on muscle receptors is still one of the best complete reviews on these topics.
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© 1994 John Rothwell
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Rothwell, J. (1994). Proprioceptors in muscles, joints and skin. In: Control of Human Voluntary Movement. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6960-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6960-8_4
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