“Serious attention must therefore be given by clinicians – and not least, by physiotherapists – to the role of articular reflexes in the regulation of normal and abnormal posture and movement, in addition to their sensory perceptual functions.”
“Functions of Articular Neural Receptor Systems:
The nerve-endings and their afferent fibers are responsible for two main functional consequences – the provision of articular sensation and the generation of reflex influences on the activity of the related striated musculature.
The joint tissues, by virtue of their nerve supply, are provided with two types of sensory innervation, mechanoreceptor sensation and pain sensation, the former providing the basis for kinaesthetic and postural perceptual experience.
Loss of the normal arthrokinetic reflexes provided from the mechanoreceptors in a joint as a result of trauma or disease results in profound abnormalities of limb and spinal posture and movement. It is now clear, therefore, that such articular mechanoreceptors (hitherto largely neglected by physiologists and clinicians) are of considerable importance in the circumstances of everyday life-not only in respect of their potent contribution to perceptual awareness of joint position and movement, but also in respect of their powerful reciprocal reflex regulation of muscle tone in posture and movement.
Serious attention must therefore be given by clinicians – and not least, by physiotherapists – to the role of articular reflexes in the regulation of normal and abnormal posture and movement, in addition to their perceptual functions; and articular reflexes must now assume major significance in all clinical considerations of locomotor physiology and pathology, including the effects of surgical operations on and the effects of immobilization of joints.”
Barry Wyke, M.D., B.S.
Neurological Laboratory, Royal College of Surgeons of England
Physiotherapy – Vol. 58, #3, March 12, 1972: pp. 94-99
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