M. Tech. / Purpose: To determine whether there was any improvement in proprioception by influencing the proprioceptive receptors through either manual manipulation of the Sacroiliac joint or subjecting the participants to whole body vibration by means of Powerplate training. A combination of the two was also used. Methods: This study included 45 participants divided into 3 groups of equal size. All participants were symptomatic with regard to Sacroiliac Joint pain and\or restriction and fell within the different activity categories according to the Internat ional Physical Activity Questionnaire. Participants in Group 1 were subjected to Sacroiliac Joint adjustment and Powerplate training, Group 2’s participants were subjected only to Sacroiliac Joint adjustment, and participants in Group 3 were only asked to perform training sessions on the Powerplate. The study design consisted of six consultations with intervention applied at each consultation and objective readings taken at the beginning, after the 3rd intervention and after the last intervention. Objective data was obtained by the Biodex Stability System. The initial effect of the intervention was represented by the initial Biodex Stability System reading compared to the second reading, and the short term effect was represented by the initial reading compared to the Biodex Stability System reading at the end of the six consultations. Results: Objective results from comparing intergroup Biodex Overall Stability Index readings showed that Group 3, the group that received only Powerplate training, had the most significant ef fect (p=0.016). This was followed by Group 1 (Powerplate and Chiropractic Spinal Adjustive therapy) with p=0.098. During intragroup comparison, it was found that the initial treatment , from the first Biodex reading to the second, had the biggest effect (p=0.005). iv Conclusion: Although the group that only received Powerplate training showed a significant effect especially with initial treatment, some effect was also seen at the group that received both Powerplate training and Chiropractic Spinal Adjustive therapy and the group that only received Chiropractic Spinal Adjustive therapy. Although there was an initial worsening of balance between sessions 1 and 2 in the Powerplate group, the overall effect showed an improvement in balance in this Group.

Objectives: This diploma thesis briefly summarizes the current knowledge about the neurophysiological and functional somatosensory influence of sedentary and non-sedentary occupations on the individual. The experimental part compares the quality of somatognostic functions in cohorts with sedentary occupations (SO) versus non-sedentary occupations (NSO). The NSO group positions and movements often alternate and static positions are not held for long periods. Methods: Both groups had the same number of probands. Ore-emptive questionnaires provided anamnestic data for each individual. Afterwards, somatosensory functions were assessed using six selected tests; 2 tests for upper extremity proprioception (UEP), 2 tests for lower extremity proprioception (LEP) and 2 tests for body size perception. Results: There was a significant difference in the results of the four tests measuring quality of proprioception of the upper and lower extremities. The NSO group showed more accurate results. In the UEP test measured in sitting posture, there was an average deviation 4,4ř in the SO group, and 3,1ř in the NSO group (p = 0,021). In the UEP test measured in standing posture, there was an average deviation 4.0 cm in the SO group, and 3,0 cm in the NSO group (p = 0.025). In the LEP test measured in standing posture,...

M.Tech. (Chiropractic) / Mechanical neck pain is the most common type of cervical spine pain encountered. It is also referred to as simple or non-specific neck pain and is common in all groups of people (Plaugher, 1993). A majority of individuals with neck pain do not experience a resolution in their pain and disability and this thus results in chronicity (Cote, Cassidy, Carrol and Kristman, 2004). Chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT) is a specific form of articular manipulation, especially of the vertebral column. This is performed either manually, mechanically, actively or passively in order to restore normal articular alignment and function (Gatterman, 2005). Proprioceptive neck exercises are designed to retrain the cervical musculature to regain its position sense in space. Specific exercises are designed to locate the head to a neutral position and then to do a series of movements in other planes, and then to return the head to the neutral position (Revel, Minguet, Gergoy, Valliant and Manuel, 1994). Chiropractic manipulative therapy does have documented positive effects on the proprioceptive system within the cervical spine (Palmgren, 2006) as does proprioceptive exercises (Sarig-Bahat, 2003; Revel, Minguet, Gergoy, Vaillant, Manuel, 1994). The desired effects of combining both these treatments would be to increase the response rate in patients suffering from chronic mechanical neck pain. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of Chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT) and proprioceptive neck exercises as stand-alone treatment protocols, as well as a combination treatment protocol with regards to neck pain, disability, cervical spine range of motion and Head Repositioning Accuracy (HRA). Participants were recruited from the University of Johannesburg Chiropractic Day Clinic. They were eligible to participate in the study once they met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Participants were recruited by means of advertisements that were placed around the respective campuses of the University of Johannesburg as well as by word of mouth. Thirty participants, who presented with chronic mechanical neck pain, volunteered for this randomised comparative clinical study. The participants, aged between 18 - 40, were randomly divided into three groups of ten, with a half female to male ratio. Group 1 received Chiropractic manipulative therapy to the restricted joints in the cervical spine, Group 2 received proprioceptive neck exercises and Group 3 received a combination of both treatments. Participants were treated for a total of 6 visits over a three week period. Subjective and objective measurements were taken at the beginning of visits 1, 4 and at a final visit 7 during which only measurements were taken. Subjective measurements consisted of the Vernon-Mior Neck Pain and Disability Index (VMNPDI) and the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) to assess the participants‟ neck pain and disability as well as their perception of pain. Objective measurements were obtained by using the Cervical Range of Motion device (CROM) as well as measuring the Head Repositioning Accuracy (HRA) as described by Revel, Andre-Deshays and Minguet (1991). Based on the results of the study, it could be concluded that both Group 1 (Chiropractic manipulative therapy to the restricted joints in the cervical spine) and Group 3 (a combination of cervical spine manipulation and proprioceptive neck exercises) can be used effectively to treat chronic mechanical neck pain and improve HRA. Group 1, 2 and 3 showed statistical improvements in certain areas and clinical improvements in all areas over time. It could not be statistically concluded whether one treatment is superior to the other, although clinically, Group 1 and Group 3 seemed to be more effective. Considering that Group 3 is a combination of cervical spine manipulation and proprioceptive neck exercises, it could be considered as a valid treatment protocol for chronic mechanical neck pain and improving HRA and could thus be used in a clinical setting.

This project investigated the effects of Kinesio® Tape on pain, kinesiophobia, and proprioception in participants with patellar tendonitis. Thirty participants with patellar tendonitis were divided into three groups, the first received a supportive Kinesio® Tape application at the knee, the second received a facilitative application at the hip, and the third received both. A Visual Analog Score, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia score, and a proprioceptive score quantified through the Biodex Balance System were obtained both immediately after application, and 24 to 36 hours following. Statistically significant improvement in VAS scores and in proprioceptive ability with eyes closed 24 to 36 hours following Kinesio® Tape application was observed under all interventions. Kinesio® Tape application for pain, cause of pain and proprioception may assist patients with patellar tendonitis.

Les mains robotiques sont pour la plupart utilisées pour reproduire la dextérité humaine. Au delà des challenges mécaniques et de contrôle que ceci peut représenter, la connaissance de l’environnent avec lequel la main interagit est important pour assurer la dextérité. Donc, la reconnaissance tactile des objets est devenue une capacité importante pour les systèmes de manipulation. Dans ce thèse, on propose une méthode pour qu'une main robotique puisse comprendre la nature géométrique d'un objet que lui a été donné. En plus des données statique récupérées quand la main a saisie l'objet, le mouvements qu'elle fait pendant la saisi sont aussi exploitées. Comme première contribution, on propose les signatures de formes proprioceptives. Ceci est un descripteur qui est basé uniquement sur des données proprioceptives et qui est invariant à la taille et à la position de l'objet dans la main. Il contient l'information sur la forme globale de l'objet. Comme deuxième contribution, on propose un outil pour extraire l'information sur l'objet saisi en utilisant l'information dynamique générée pendant la saisie. Pour cela, les mouvements des doigts pendant le saisie sont interprétés en fonction de la stratégie de saisie utilisée. On présente une méthode pour faire la reconnaissance de la forme d'un objet de façon séquentielle. Pour cela, on utilise une collection des Forêt d'arbres décisionnels. Ceci permet de mettre a jour le modèle de reconnaissance quand des nouveaux objets doivent être reconnus. De cette façon, le temps du processus d’entraînement de l'algorithme est réduit. / Robotic anthropomorphic hands are mostly used to reproduce the human dexterity in manipulation. Beyond the mechanical and control challenges that this represents, perceptive knowledge of the environment with which the hand interacts is key to ensure that dexterity is achieved. In this sense, tactile object recognition has become an important asset for manipulation systems. Regardless of the advances in this domain, it continues to be a valid subject of research today. In this thesis, we propose a method to enable a robotic hand to quickly understand the geometrical nature of an object that has been handled by it. Aside from the static data obtained once the object has been fully grasped, the movements of the hand during the grasp execution will also be exploited. As a first contribution, we propose the proprioceptive shape signature. This descriptor, based solely on proprioceptive data, is invariant to the size and pose of the object within the hand and it contains information about the global shape of the object almost as soon as the grasp execution ends. As a second contribution, we propose a tool to extract information about the grasped object from the dynamic data generated during the grasp execution. For this, the movements of the fingers during the grasping process will be interpreted based on the grasp strategy. Finally, we present a method to perform sequential object shape identification based on a collection of random forests. This method allows to update the recognition model as new shapes are desired to be identified. Thus, the time-consuming process of training the model from scratch is avoided.

This research is focused on "swimmer's shoulder" and on affection of chosen aspects by kinesiotape. Theoretical part describes a summary of knowledge about origin, diagnostic and treatment of swimmer's shoulder. Kinesiotaping as a nowadays treatment method and its effects are also specified. The thesis provides a brief description of chosen aspects (pain, tactile acuity and proprioception) and their measuring by objectification methods. Practical part deals with measuring, evaluation and comparing of mentioned aspects before and after treatment by kinesiotape. Methods: 20 competitive swimmers (average age 18,3 years, SD ± 3,10) with shoulder pain were chosen for investigating and measuring. Pain was observed by visual analog scale (VAS) and pressure algometry, tactile acuity by esthesiomether and proprioception by a special method, all before and after treatment. A control group without kinesiotape was included to the research. Results: The experiment showed that tactile acuity was altered in patients with kinesiotape by 27,5 mm in average. This result was evaluated as statistically significant (p = 0,0023). Although values of pain measured by VAS and pressure algometry were enhanced, they were not very significant on the importace level 0,05 (p = 0,1540, resp. 0,1575). Proprioception was also...

Proprioception is the sense of body position in space (Gilman, 2002; Goble, Coxon, et al., 2012), and can be evaluated using both clinical assessments and laboratory based tasks. To date, normal aging has been shown to lead to a decline in proprioceptive acuity as assessed via laboratory based proprioceptive matching tasks, while proprioceptive deficits have been assumed to be present in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) based on performance on clinical assessments. The objective of the current study was to determine if performance on clinical assessments and laboratory based proprioceptive matching tasks is similar across older adults (OA) and PwMS (Adamo et al., 2007; Goble, 2010; Herter et al., 2014; Jamali et al., 2017; Khan et al., 2018; Scherder et al., 2018). Twenty-four OA participants (70+ years old) and twenty PwMS from the Ottawa community were recruited to take part in this study. Proprioceptive sense was assessed using clinical assessments (i.e., superficial sensation, vibration sense and joint position sense) and laboratory based proprioceptive matching tasks. Analysis revealed that while OA performed better on the clinical assessments, PwMS were more accurate in the laboratory matching tasks. Furthermore, analysis of goal directed movements in the matching tasks, revealed that PwMS spent more time in the initial, planning stage of the movement compared to OA, who spent more time executing their movements. These results indicate that OA and PwMS do not demonstrate similar deficits across clinical assessments and laboratory based proprioceptive tasks, and in fact plan and execute their movements differently. Moreover, results also call into question the relationship between clinical and laboratory based assessments of proprioception.

No description available.

Des évidences suggèrent que l’entraînement golfique améliore l’acuité proprioceptive et la stabilité posturale. Cependant, la proprioception du membre supérieur des golfeurs experts n’a jamais été évaluée. De plus, aucune étude ne s’est intéressée à la demande attentionnelle de la performance motrice des golfeurs élites. Nous avons comparé la performance de golfeurs élites à celle de non-athlètes sédentaires dans deux tâches motrices effectuées sans vision : une tâche d’atteintes manuelles vers des cibles proprioceptives situées dans l’espace tridimensionnel et une tâche de limites de la stabilité posturale dynamique. Ces tâches étaient effectuées isolément (tâche simple) ou simultanément à une tâche cognitive attentionnelle de soustraction mathématique (tâche double). La précision et la variabilité des atteintes manuelles étaient mesurées à l’aide d’un système d’analyse de mouvement. Les limites de la stabilité posturale étaient quantifiées à partir des déplacements des centres de pression obtenus à l’aide d’une plateforme de force. Nos résultats démontrent que les atteintes manuelles des golfeurs élites sont moins variables que ceux des sujets témoins uniquement dans la condition de tâche double. La performance cognitive des golfeurs est également meilleure que celles des sujets témoins en condition de tâche double. Par ailleurs, les limites médio-latérales de la stabilité posturale des golfeurs élites sont plus grandes que les non-athlètes et mobilisent, en moyenne, moins de ressources attentionnelles. Ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que l’entraînement golfique augmente l’efficacité de contrôle proprioceptif des mouvements de bras et de la stabilité posturale et diminue les exigences attentionnelles de la performance motrice. / Evidence suggests that golf training improves proprioceptive acuity and postural stability. However, proprioceptive sensitivity at the upper limb has never been investigated in expert golfers. Furthermore, no previous study assessed the attentional demand of motor performance in elite golfers. We compared the performance of elite golfers to sedentary non-athletes in two motor tasks performed without vision: a task involving reaching movements to proprioceptive targets located in three-dimensional space and a dynamic postural stability limit task. These tasks were performed alone (single-task) and simultaneously to a cognitive-attentional subtraction task (dual-task). The accuracy and variability of reaching movements were measured using a motion analysis system. The limits of postural stability were quantified from center of pressure displacements recorded with a force platform. Our results demonstrated that reaching movements of elite golfers were less variable than those of control subjects only in the dual task condition. As well, the cognitive performance of elite golfers was better than those of non-athletes in the dual task condition. Moreover, the medio-lateral stability limits of elite golfers were larger than those of non-athletes and, on average, mobilized less attentional resources. Together, these results suggest that golf training increases the efficiency of the proprioceptive control of arm movements and postural stability and decreases the attentional demand of motor performance.

Augmented reality (AR) is a very promising display technology with many compelling industrial applications. However, before it can be used in actual settings, its fidelity needs to be investigated from a user-centric viewpoint. More specifically, how distance to the virtual objects is perceived in augmented reality is still an open question. To the best of our knowledge, there are only four previous studies that specifically studied distance perception in AR within reaching distances. Therefore, distance perception in augmented reality still remains a largely understudied phenomenon. This document presents research in depth perception in augmented reality in the near visual field. The specific goal of this research is to empirically study various measurement techniques for depth perception, and to study various factors that affect depth perception in augmented reality, specifically, eye accommodation, brightness, and participant age. This document discusses five experiments that have already been conducted. Experiment I aimed to determine if there are inherent difference between the perception of virtual and real objects by comparing depth judgments using two complementary distance judgment protocols: perceptual matching and blind reaching. This experiment found that real objects are perceived more accurately than virtual objects and matching is a relatively more accurate distance measure than reaching. Experiment II compared the two distance judgment protocols in the real world and augmented reality environments, with improved proprioceptive and visual feedback. This experiment found that reaching responses in the AR environment became more accurate with improved feedback. Experiment III studied the effect of different levels of accommodative demand (collimated, consistent, and midpoint) on distance judgments. This experiment found nearly accurate distance responses in the consistent and midpoint conditions, and a linear increase in error in the collimated condition. Experiment IV studied the effect of brightness of the target object on depth judgments. This experiment found that distance responses were shifted towards background for the dim AR target. Lastly, Experiment V studied the effect of participant age on depth judgments and found that older participants judged distance more accurately than younger participants. Taken together, these five experiments will help us understand how depth perception operates in augmented reality.