Vibration sensitivity of slowly and rapidly adapting cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the human foot and leg

doi:10.1016/0304-3940(89)90342-X

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 104, Issues 1–2, 25 September 1989, Pages 130-135

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(89)90342-X Get rights and content

Abstract

The activities of 30 rapidly adapting cutaneous receptors (FA) and 23 slowly adapting cutaneous receptors (SA) were recorded from the lateral peroneal nerve using the microneurographic method. Their sensitivity to mechanical vibrations with constant amplitude applied at various frequencies to the center of the receptive field was studied. These two populations of cutaneous receptors were found to be very sensitive to this stimulus: they could be driven in a one to one manner up to between 100 and 200 Hz. The difference lay in the response observed when the vibration frequency was increased to above this critical value: the FA receptors sharply stopped firing, whereas the SA receptors became progressively unlinked from the stimulus. The effects of vibration on the physiological messages were also studied. The results showed that the messages coding the properties of tactile stimuli were either completely or partly masked by the receptor response to vibration. These vibration-induced modifications of cutaneous sensory messages might be at least partly responsible for the sensorimotor alterations observed when subjects are exposed to vibration.

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Cited by (113)

Intermittent vibrational stimulation enhances mobility during stair navigation in patients with knee pain
2021, Gait and Posture
Citation Excerpt :
The stimulus was active prior to heel strike until mid-stance of the level and stair walking cycle. Intermittent stimulus was selected to prevent adaptation of cutaneous receptors to continuous stimulus [26,27]. Treatment B (passive, pressure only) was a commercially available passive dual knee band, marketed for knee pain relief (Hueglo®) (Fig. 1a), selected on the basis of applying isolated compression, shown to reduce knee pain in persons with knee OA [28,29].
Reduced quadriceps function and proprioception can cause decreased mobility during stair navigation in patients with knee pain. Patients can benefit from interventions to mitigate pain and restore quadriceps function. Activating the somatosensory system via intermittent vibrational stimulation has the potential to improve stair navigation mobility in patients with knee pain by moderating quadriceps inhibition and enhancing proprioception.
What are the effects of intermittent vibrational stimulus synchronized to stair ambulation on muscle activity, kinematics, kinetics, and pain using a randomized controlled clinical trial design.
Thirty-eight patients with knee pain were enrolled into a blinded cross-over study, and twenty-nine patients completed all assessments and analyses. Subjects were randomly assigned sequentially to both an active Treatment A (active) and passive Treatment B (passive) worn at the knee during ambulation for 4 weeks with a 2-week washout period between treatments.
Knee pain during stair navigation was significantly reduced only with Treatment A (P = 0.007). During ascent, Treatment A (active) significantly increased vastus lateralis activation (P = 0.01), increased knee flexion moment (P = 0.04) and decreased trunk flexion angles (P = 0.015) between baseline and 4-week follow-up. After using passive Treatment B, there were no significant differences in pain (P = 0.19), knee flexion moment (P = 0.09), and trunk flexion angles (P = 0.23). Changes in muscle function correlated significantly with changes in knee flexion moment and trunk flexion with Treatment A (P < 0.015).
Descending differed from ascending in response to Treatment A with significantly decreased knee flexion moment(P = 0.04), hip(P = 0.02) and ankle(P = 0.04) flexion angles. Treatment B significantly reduced hip flexion angles (P = 0.005) but not knee flexion moment (P = 0.85).
The results of this study suggest that intermittent vibration can improve joint motion and loading during stair navigation by enhancing quadriceps function during stair ascent and improving movement control during stair descent by modifying an adaptive flexed movement pattern in the lower limb.
Effects of augmented somatosensory input using vibratory insoles to improve walking in individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis
2021, Gait and Posture
Citation Excerpt :
In the non-impaired nervous system, descending supraspinal control regulates spinal reflex activity, but following stroke lesions, this supraspinal control is disrupted, thus impaired threshold of the stretch reflex pathway and impaired reflex adaptations are observed in people post-stroke [30–32]. Augmented somatosensory input, such as vibratory stimulations, have been shown to activate and alter central mechanisms in the stroke-impaired nervous system, and thus improve motor functions, likely via enhanced activity of the somatosensory cortex and presynaptic inhibition of the afferent discharge [33–36]. Specifically, strong synaptic coupling between afferents from the sole of the foot and motor neurons supplying the leg muscles have been demonstrated in humans, and it has been proposed that afferent inputs mediate its effect on motor functions via modulating the excitability of the motor cortex [37–39].
Stroke survivors suffer from hemiparesis and somatosensory impairments, which adversely impact walking performance, placing them at higher risks for trips and falls. Post-stroke, somatosensory deficits are commonly observed as impaired interpretation of afferent input and increased threshold. Diminishing or augmenting somatosensory inputs via various techniques have been demonstrated to be able to modify static and dynamic balance, postural and locomotor control in non-neurologically impaired as well as neurologically impaired individuals.
Research question: We sought to investigate whether enhancing somatosensory input using vibratory insoles, can improve post-stroke gait. We hypothesized that with augmentation of somatosensory input at the soles via vibratory insoles would improve post-stroke gait via increased propulsive forces, decreased braking forces and increased ankle angle movements in the paretic legs of individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis.
Fifteen individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis and 15 age-similar non-neurologically impaired controls participated in this cross-sectional study. Enhanced somatosensory stimulation was delivered using a pair of tactor-embedded insoles, providing suprathreshold vibratory stimulation to the bottom of the feet. Participants walked over an instrumented treadmill with self-selected speeds, under 5 conditions: no insole in shoe (NT), insoles in shoe with no vibration (BOFF), vibration under both feet (BON), vibration under one foot only (ION, CON). Kinetics and kinematics during walking were recorded and analyzed offline.
Suprathreshold vibratory stimulations did not alter gait kinetics under any stimulation conditions. We observed increased paretic ankle dorsiflexions in the paretic legs, when vibratory stimuli were applied unilaterally.
Vibratory stimulations applied at suprathreshold intensity to the bottom of the feet to augment somatosensory feedback can potentially be used as a low-cost solution to address the inadequate toe clearance during walking in people post-stroke, which is an important goal in post-stroke rehabilitation.
Transcutaneous vibration stimulation and pain
2019, Douleurs
La stimulation vibratoire transcutanée (SVT) est une technique de physiothérapie présentant des effets perceptivomoteurs et antalgiques et susceptible d’améliorer la mobilité articulaire de façon complémentaire et cohérente par rapport aux techniques de rééducation proprioceptive habituelles. La SVT s’est révélée être un outil puissant pour la sédation de la douleur qui s’impose dans tout protocole rééducatif ; sa facilité d’utilisation associée à sa totale innocuité en font une technique particulièrement adaptée en rééducation fonctionnelle dans les pathologies de l’appareil locomoteur et particulièrement en rééducation neurologique. Les SVT réduisent les douleurs chroniques tout autant que le font les stimulations électriques transcutanées et cette sédation persiste plusieurs heures après le début du traitement. L’activation des mécanorécepteurs de la peau par des vibrations mécaniques de faible amplitude contribue directement à la genèse d’effets antalgiques, ainsi que l’activation des mécanorécepteurs musculaires, les fuseaux neuromusculaires, et très certainement l’intervention de composantes centrales non encore totalement élucidée. Les mécanismes impliqués dans l’action antalgique de la SVT s’appuient principalement sur la théorie du « gate control » de Melzack et Wall, et on peut considérer que les informations proprioceptives musculaires agissent également selon le même principe : ces effets inhibiteurs d’origine périphérique se combineraient à ceux, d’origine centrale, résultant du traitement médullaire ou cortical des informations douloureuses. Chez des patients présentant un syndrome douloureux régional complexe de type I (SRDC-I), un traitement par SVT a entraîné une réduction significative de la douleur ainsi qu’une amélioration importante de la mobilité articulaire du poignet et des doigts par comparaison avec les sujets contrôles non traités, soumis uniquement à la kinésithérapie traditionnelle. Les SVT constituent donc un puissant moyen de sédation capable d’agir sur un large spectre de douleurs chroniques ou aiguës. Facile à mettre en œuvre, cette méthode non médicamenteuse représente pour les patients une avancée notable puisqu’elle sollicite les mécanosensibilités corporelles cutanée et proprioceptive musculaire d’une manière massive, totalement indolore, et sans contre-indication grâce à l’ amplitude réduite de la stimulation.
Transcutaneous vibratory stimulation (TVS) is a technique of natural medicine presenting perceptive-motor and analgesic effects able to improve articular mobility, complementary to usual proprioceptive re-education techniques. TVS is a potent tool for pain sedation; it is easily used and totally innocuous which makes it particularly adapted for functional re-education in locomotor apparatus pathologies and particularly in neurological rehabilitation. TVS reduces chronic pain as effectively as transcutaneous electrical stimulation and this sedation lasts several hours after beginning of the treatment. Cutaneous mechanoreceptors activation by low amplitude mechanical vibrations directly contributes to the origin of analgesic effects, as well as muscular mechanoreceptors activation, neuromuscular spindles, and certainly associated with central component interventions not yet totally described. Mechanisms involved in alleviating action of TVS depend principally on “gate control” theory (Melzack and Wall), and it is easily possible to consider that muscular proprioceptive informations do equally in accordance with the same principle: these inhibitory effects of peripheral origin would combine with those of central origin, resulting from spinal or cortical treatment of painful informations. In chronic pain patients with type I complex regional pain syndrome (type I CRPS), TVS treatment significantly reduces pain, associated with important improvement of wrist and digits articular mobility, when compared with untreated control patients subjected only to traditional physiotherapy. TVS represents a powerful analgesic mean able to act on a large spectrum of chronic or acute pains. This non-medicinal method is easy to use and represents a noticeable progress for patients since it requests cutaneous and muscular proprioceptive corporeal mechanical sensitivities in a massive way, totally painless, and without any contra-indication because of the reduced amplitude of stimulation.
How can the stimulation of plantar cutaneous receptors improve postural control? Review and clinical commentary
2019, Neurophysiologie Clinique
Postural control requires constant and subconscious postural sway to manage balance and achieve postural stability. These movements of regulation are based in particular on cutaneous plantar information. The foot constitutes a functional whole that participates in the mechanisms of postural control and regulation. It represents the direct interface between the body and the ground during quiet standing, and plantar cutaneous information contributes to postural control. Upright balance mechanically depends on the gravitational torque produced by the forces of gravity and reaction of the ground. In this context, the foot behaves like a sensory system for postural regulation whose objective is to maintain a state of stability within a changing and constraining environment. There is a relation between balance improvement and the facilitation of sensory feedback related to the activation of the plantar cutaneous mechanoreceptors. From a clinical point of view, the application of additional tactile cues may have therapeutic benefits in relation to fall prevention, or to improve specific types of chronic pain.
Activating the somatosensory system enhances net quadriceps moment during gait
2019, Journal of Biomechanics
Citation Excerpt :
This cross-modal plasticity of the somatosensory system could, therefore, be exploited to induce desired changes in patterns of muscle contraction via mechanical stimulation of cutaneous mechanoreceptors that respond to stimuli such as compressive pressure and vibration (Bolanowski, 1996; Johnson, 2001). Additionally, an intermittent stimulus may produce an optimal response since a constant stimulus can have a diminished response (Pubols, 1982; Ribot-Ciscar et al., 1989). Muscle activation in response to cutaneous receptor stimulation can be modulated by a variety of factors (Zehr et al., 1997) including the phase of the gait cycle, the intensity of stimulation and the nature of the task being performed, i.e. rhythmic movements such as walking.
Quadriceps muscle rehabilitation following knee injury or disease is often hampered by pain, proprioception deficits or instability associated with inhibition of quadriceps activation during walking. The cross-modal plasticity of the somatosensory system with common sensory pathways including pain, pressure and vibration offers a novel opportunity to enhance quadriceps function during walking. This study explores the effectiveness of an active knee brace that used intermittent cutaneous vibration during walking to enhance the peak knee flexion moment (KFM) during early stance phase as a surrogate for net quadriceps moment (balance between knee extensor and flexor muscle moments). The stimulus was turned on prior to heel strike and turned off at mid-stance of the gait cycle. Twenty-one subjects with knee pathologies known to inhibit quadriceps function were tested walking under three conditions: control (no brace), a passive brace, and an active brace. Findings show that compared to the control, subjects wearing an active brace during gait exhibited a significant (p < 0.001) increase in peak KFM and no significant difference when wearing a passive brace (p = 0.17). Furthermore, subjects with low KFM and knee flexion angle (KFA) in control exhibited the greatest increase in KFA at loading response in the active brace condition (R = 0.47, p < 0.05). Intermittent cutaneous stimulation during gait, therefore, provides an efficient method for increasing the KFM in patients with knee pathologies. This study’s results suggest that intermittent vibration stimulus can activate the cross-modalities of the somatosensory system in a manner that gates pain stimulus and possibly restores quadriceps function in patients with knee pain.
Gait Event Detection Wearable Device Development and the Effect of Vibration Feedback on Ankle Kinematics and Kinetics
2023, IEEE Sensors Journal

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Vibration sensitivity of slowly and rapidly adapting cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the human foot and leg

Abstract

Brain Res.

Brain Res.

Trends Neurosci.

Brain Res.

Exp. Neurol.

Neurosci. Lett.

The responses of afferent fibers from the glabrous skin of the hand during voluntary finger movements in man

J. Physiol. (Lond.)

Roles of glabrous skin mechanoreceptors and sensorimotor memory in automatic control of precision grip when lifting rougher or more slippery objects

Exp. Brain Res.

Tactile afferent input influencing motor coordination during precision grip

Signals in tactile afferents from the fingers eliciting adaptive motor responses during precision grip

Exp. Brain Res.

Single unit analysis of mechanoreceptor activity from the human glabrous skin

Acta Physiol. Scand.