Proprioception

proprioception, the perception by an animal of stimuli relating to its own position, posture, equilibrium, or internal condition.

The coordination of movements requires continuous awareness of the position of each limb. The receptors in the skeletal (striated) muscles and on the surfaces of tendons of vertebrates provide constant information on the positions of limbs and the action of muscles. Comparable organs of arthropods (e.g., insects, crustaceans) include stretch receptors located on the outsides of muscles and chordotonal organs (special nerves that measure tension changes) within the joints. Awareness of limb position and movements is also gained through the stimulation of sensitive hairs at the joints.

The awareness of equilibrium changes usually involves the perception of gravity. The organ for such perception most frequently found in invertebrates is the statocyst, a fluid-filled chamber lined with sensitive hairs and containing one or more tiny, stonelike grains (statoliths). The statoliths may be free-moving, as in most mollusks, or loosely fixed to the sense hairs, as in some crustaceans. Statocysts are also found in many cnidarians and worms. Comparable organs in vertebrates are the saccule and utricle of the ear, the grains being called otoliths. In either case, a change in the animal’s position or orientation is conveyed to the sense hairs by the pressure of the statoliths.

A third type of proprioceptor, found in all vertebrates and some invertebrates (e.g., cephalopods, crustaceans), informs the animal of body rotations. The crustacean organ detects changes in the inertia of fluid in a cavity, into which slender sensory hairs project. Rotation of the animal causes the stimulation of the hairs because of the inertial lag of the fluid.

Vertebrates are able to sense rotation by the inertial lag of fluid in the semicircular canals of the ear, acting on sensory hairs. The three canals form loops lying in planes at right angles to each other; by integrating signals from the canals, the central nervous system can detect rotation in planes other than those of the canals.