Kinesthesis

Kinesthesis Definition

For your body to do what seems like a simple task, there are about 200 muscles that need to speak to each other and instruct each other on how to do a task such as standing up from your chair. There are millions of motion sensors in your muscles, tendons, and joints that work all over the body. These are called proprioceptors, and they help or enable your sense of kinesthesia. This allows you to be aware of your body parts and their position and movements.

There are sensors in our muscles and joints, but where is the control center for kinesthesia? Brain scans show that kinesthetic sensations are related directly to activity in the posterior parietal cortex and the primary motor cortex.

Kinesthesis is considered to be contralateral, which means that the right part of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain and vice versa. Full perception requires a healthy contralateral cerebral cortex. This means that the inner networking of nerves is responsible for both sides of the brain and body.

Hand movements, pexels.com

Kinesthesia Examples

What is an example of how you use your sense of kinesthesis? It's simple!

Kinesthesia vs Proprioception

What about those proprioceptors that play a role in kinesthesis? How are they different from the sense of kinesthesis?

When our proprioception and kinesthesis sense work and communicate together, they use signals from our vestibular sense. What are our vestibular senses, and how do they communicate with both our kinesthesia and proprioception?

Our kinesthetic sense is also different from proprioception in that proprioception gives us our sense of balance or equilibrium. If you suddenly had an inner ear infection, your sense of balance will most likely be off. The infection would make your proprioception worse but not your kinesthetic sense. You would be able to walk, but you would have to rely on your sense of sight to keep your balance. If you were to close your eyes as you walked, you might lose your balance.

Kinesthetic sense, pexels.com

Kinesthesis and Vestibular Sense

How does your vestibular sense help with kinesthesis?

There are two important areas that make up the inner ear. First, there are your fluid-filled semicircular canals that are shaped like a pretzel. The second area is the pair of calcium-crystal–filled vestibular sacs. These areas are important because they tell you the position of your head. If you tilt your head, these two areas of the inner ear send a signal to the cerebellum (the back of your brain). This signal says "hey, we are laying down" or "hey, we are standing now."

Here is a quick guide to remembering the differences between each of these senses:

What are the differences between kinesthesis and vestibular sense? StudySmarter Original

Kinesthesia Disorders

What disorders are associated with kinesthesia? How does damage to the kinesthetic sense impact life functioning? First, how is someone diagnosed with a kinesthesia disorder? There should be a test conducted by a doctor to help determine if someone may have a disorder by ruling out any other possibilities or inabilities. How is that done?

Brief Kinesthesia Test (BKT)

A health professional can test for kinesthesia using the wrist to perform a brief kinesthesia test (BKT). Placing the wrist at an angle, the doctor will begin passively moving it slowly (0.5 to 2 degrees per second) until the person signals or states that they can feel the motion is happening. Basically, the person should be able to tell when their wrist is moving (Mee, 2020).

What if there was a noticeable delay in the person's ability to tell that their wrist was moving?

Peripheral Neuropathy

One disorder commonly associated with kinesthesis is peripheral neuropathy. This is a likely explanation for why someone may not be able to sense the movement of their wrist.

Peripheral Neuropathy Symptoms

What kind of damage is present in peripheral neuropathy? Often there is damage to the peripheral nerves, spinal cord, brainstem, or even the cerebrum. Reports also point to higher occurrences of this disorder in patients ages 55+ who are at higher risk of experiencing strokes (Nursing Fundamentals, 2022).

Kinesthesia Disorders as a Comorbid Diagnoses

A disordered kinesthesis sense is usually a comorbid diagnosis. This means that it usually comes with another serious illness or disease. One common comorbid diagnosis is Parkinson's disease and a kinesthesia disorder.

Those with Parkinson's disease experience advanced issues in mobility and lack the ability to stabilize areas and limbs of the body. Most often, patients will experience rigidity of the body and decreased kinesthetic sensitivity. Research suggests that medication often prescribed for Parkinson's disease patients can affect the functioning of the kinesthetic sense due to both the medication and the presence of the disease (Wright, 2010).