Summary
Purpose To explore the effect of joint hypermobility on acuity, and plasticity, of hand proprioception.
Materials and Methods We compared proprioceptive acuity between EDS patients and controls. We then measured any changes in their estimate of hand position after participants adapted their reaches in response to altered visual feedback of their hand. The Beighton Scale was used to quantify the magnitude of joint hypermobility.
Results There were no differences between the groups in the accuracy of estimates of hand location, nor in the visually-induced changes in hand location. However, EDS patients’ estimates were less precise when based purely on proprioception and could be moderately predicted by Beighton score.
Conclusions EDS patients are less precise at estimating their hand’s location when only afferent information is available, but the presence of efferent signalling may reduce this imprecision. Those who are more hypermobile are more likely to be imprecise. This deficit likely has peripheral origins since we found no differences in the extent of sensorimotor plasticity.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.