Comparison of knee proprioception between congenitally and late blind people

International Conference on Sports Medicine and Fitness

March 23-25, 2015 Chicago, USA

Hossein Fakoor Rashid1, Zinat Zarandi2 and Ali Asghar Norashteh1

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Sports Med Doping Stud

Abstract :

Introduction: Vision plays an important role in sensorimotor control and it is to be expected that the efficiency of human motor control will be affected by the lack of input of visual information. Blind individuals have to adjust the habitual motor control strategies and develop new strategies. The main aim of this study was to compare knee proprioception between congenitally and late blind people. Methods: Ten congenitally blind (CB) people, ten late blind (LB) people and ten sighted humans participated. Knee joint position sense evaluated through active repositioning of 45Ë? of knee flexion using an isokinetic dynamometer. Knee joint position sense is reported as: the relative error (RE), the absolute error (AE), and the error variations (EV). Results: The CB had less absolute error scores in active repositioning than other groups but it was just significant between CB and LB and there was no significant difference between the CB and sighted subjects. Conclusions: The results showed the CB had more proprioceptive acuity than the LB and sighted subjects. These differences may reflect brain organization according to superior non-visual perceptual abilities in the CB and the relationship between proprioceptive acuity in adulthood and non-visual spatial experience during early development. Implications for Practitioners: These findings have practical implications for those seeking to design effective interventions for promoting performance and ameliorating depressive symptoms throughout blind people. There are adaptations after sensory alternation in congenitally blind people.