Effect of kinesio taping on hand sensorimotor control and brain activity

Abstract

Kinesio taping has been used to improve sensorimotor control performance. In this study, we explored the effect of Kinesio taping with different tensions on hand force control, joint proprioception, reaction time and brain activity. This was an observational study with a single-group, repeated-measures design. Twenty-four healthy participants (12 women) randomly assigned to three wrist/finger flexor taping conditions: (1) taping with 20% additional tension (taping20), (2) taping with neutral tension (tapingN), and (3) without taping (control). Grip force and wrist joint proprioceptive senses, reaction time, and force control performance were recorded in each of the taping conditions. An EEG of the bilateral sensorimotor cortex and an EMG of the right finger flexors were recorded to investigate changes in brain activity and functional connectivity between the brain and muscles (coherence). Our results indicated that taping significantly improved the joint position sense for participants with an error >3◦ (control vs. tapingN vs. taping20: 4.1◦ ± 1.04◦ vs. 2.6◦ ± 0.97◦ vs. 2.1◦ ± 0.91◦; p = 0.001). In addition, Kinesio taping-induced improvements in force control were moderately correlated with decreases in the EEG beta band power. In conclusion, Kinesio taping could improve the joint proprioceptive sense, and taping-induced improvement in force control is likely due to neural desynchronization in motor cortex.