The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Quantitative evaluation of position sense in patients with parietal lesion
Language	J
AuthorList	Yoshihiro Itaguchi¹⁾, Hiroshi Yoshizawa²⁾, Yumiko Uchiyama²⁾, Sachiyo Muranishi³⁾, Kazuyoshi Fukuzawa¹⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Waseda University ²⁾Tokyo Woman's Medical University ³⁾Kimitsu Chuo Hosital
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 28 (4), 274-282, 2012
Received	Sep 9, 2011
Accepted	Jan 5, 2012
Abstract	Seven patients with parietal lesion carried out a position reproduction task in controlled environment. The task was carried out in environment where participants sat on a chair and closed their eyes, and the horizontal experimental plane was adjusted at the shoulder height of participants. In the task, participants were asked to reproduce a target position voluntarily as accurately as possible after they memorized a target position at their fingertip which was presented proprioceptively. Arm movement was constrained to elbow-shoulder horizontal movement and target presentation was done passively where the experimenter guided participants' fingertip to a target holding their arm. This experiment revealed mainly three points. First, several patients who had failure in the thumb localizing test showed adequate accuracy of reproduction which did not deviate from range of younger control group. Second, patients tended to under-evaluate distance between a start point and a target point. Lastly, patients moved their arms toward wrong direction in the early phase of reproduction movement. Comparison of performance between two groups divided based on location of their lesion showed that patients with lesions of anterior parietal lobe showed stronger exploratory movement than patients in occipital lesion and that they lacked of smooth of movement. As for patients with lesions of posterior parietal lobe, it was suggested that they had higher functional disorders rather than pure position sense problems. The present study provided fundamental data for sensory-motor skills of patients with parietal lesion, and these quantitative findings would also contribute to reconsideration of current assessments and rehabilitations for sensory deficits.
Keywords	parietal lobe, position sense, position reproduction task, thumb localizing test