Proprioception & kinesthesis Flashcards
What are proprioceptors?
internal receptors located in skin, joints, muscles, & tendons which provide feedback relative to tension, length, & contraction state of muscle, position of body & limbs, and movements of joints
What is kinesthesis?
awareness of position & movement of the body in space
Proprioceptors specific to muscles
- Muscle spindles
- Golgi Tendon organs (GTO)
Muscle spindles
- concentrated primarily in muscle belly between the fibers
- sensitive to stretch & rate of stretch
Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO)
- Found in tendon close to muscle tendon junction
- sensitive to both muscle tension & active contraction
- much less sensitive to stretch than muscle spindles
- require a greater stretch to be activated
All or None Principle
regardless of number, individual muscle fibers within a given motor unit will either fire & contract maximally or not at all
The number of muscle fibers recruited may be increase by ____
- activating those motor units with the greater number of muscle fibers
- activating more motor units
- increasing the frequency of motor unit activation
What happens when muscle is contracting (concentrically or eccentrically)?
the rate of length change is significantly related to the amount of force potential
What happens when muscle contracts concentrically against a light resistance?
Muscle is able to contract at a high velocity
Muscle Force-Velocity Relationship
When resistance increases, _____
the maximal velocity at which muscle is able to contract decreases
Muscle Force-Velocity Relationship
As load increases, _______
the velocity decreases to zero resulting in an isometric contraction
Muscle Force-Velocity Relationship
As load increases beyond muscle’s ability to maintain isometric contraction, ______
the muscle begins to lengthen resulting in an eccentric contraction
Biarticular muscles
cross & act on two different joints
Advantages of biarticular muscles over uniarticular muscles
- can cause and/or control motion at more than one joint
- are able to maintain a relatively constant length due to “shortening” at one joint and “lengthening” at another joint
Multiarticular muscles
act on three or more joints due to the line of pull between their origin and insertion crossing multiple joints