Give proprioceptors a chance

Abstract

The theme of this review is that it is inappropriate to regard proprioceptors as general purpose transducers of system variables associated with movements. We should not try to describe their properties by general expressions derived by testing with a wide range of externally applied disturbances, in the way that is customary in engineering practice. Instead, if study is concentrated on their behaviour during natural active movements such as locomotion, then the significance of the signals which they feed back to the CNS is much easier to understand. This idea is developed briefly for tendon organs, and then in more detail for muscle spindles in locomotion.