TY - JOUR
T1 - Disturbances in human position sense during alterations in gravity
T2 - a parabolic flight experiment
AU - Panzirsch, Michael
AU - Pleintinger, Benedikt
AU - Stelzer, Martin
AU - Arand, Stella
AU - Schöttler, Christian
AU - Bayer, Ralph
AU - Hagengruber, Annette
A2 - Weber, Bernhard M.
A2 - Proske, Uwe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/5
Y1 - 2025/5
N2 - Under conditions of weightlessness human position sense appears to deteriorate. This was tested, employing three methods of measurement: two-arm matching, one-arm pointing and one-arm repositioning, carried out during parabolic flight. In hypergravity (1.8G), position sense errors in a matching task increased significantly from the value during horizontal flight (1G) of + 2.5° (± 3.8° SD), to + 3.5° (± 3.3°). For pointing, errors increased significantly from + 9.1° (± 4.4°) to + 11.2° (± 4.4°). In microgravity (0G), matching errors fell significantly to + 0.35° (± 3.5°), while in pointing the fall was not significant. For repositioning, there were no significant changes in errors in either hypergravity or microgravity. It is proposed that the errors in matching and pointing are a consequence of the force of gravity acting at the elbow joint to alter the position signal coming from muscle and joint receptors. For repositioning, memory of the test angle was stored centrally, to be reproduced independently of any changes in gravity.
AB - Under conditions of weightlessness human position sense appears to deteriorate. This was tested, employing three methods of measurement: two-arm matching, one-arm pointing and one-arm repositioning, carried out during parabolic flight. In hypergravity (1.8G), position sense errors in a matching task increased significantly from the value during horizontal flight (1G) of + 2.5° (± 3.8° SD), to + 3.5° (± 3.3°). For pointing, errors increased significantly from + 9.1° (± 4.4°) to + 11.2° (± 4.4°). In microgravity (0G), matching errors fell significantly to + 0.35° (± 3.5°), while in pointing the fall was not significant. For repositioning, there were no significant changes in errors in either hypergravity or microgravity. It is proposed that the errors in matching and pointing are a consequence of the force of gravity acting at the elbow joint to alter the position signal coming from muscle and joint receptors. For repositioning, memory of the test angle was stored centrally, to be reproduced independently of any changes in gravity.
KW - Hypergravity
KW - Microgravity
KW - Parabolic flight
KW - Position sense
KW - Proprioception
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105004080360
U2 - 10.1007/s00221-025-07090-z
DO - 10.1007/s00221-025-07090-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 40278861
AN - SCOPUS:105004080360
SN - 0014-4819
VL - 243
JO - Experimental Brain Research
JF - Experimental Brain Research
IS - 5
M1 - 127
ER -