Stammler Britta, Karnath Hans-Otto
Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Center of Neurology, Department of Neurology and Stroke, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Exp Brain Res. 2025 Jan 27;243(2):52. doi: 10.1007/s00221-024-06994-6.
Vibrating muscles to manipulate proprioceptive input creates the sensation of an apparent change in body position. This study investigates whether vibrating the right biceps muscle has similar effects as vibrating the left posterior neck muscles. Based on previous observations, we hypothesized that both types of muscle vibration would shift the perception of healthy subjects' subjective straight-ahead (SSA) orientation in the horizontal plane to the left. Such a finding would be extremely interesting for future treatment of spatial neglect, a disorder following right-sided stroke brain lesions. Twenty healthy participants (11 females, 9 males, aged 20-52) were tested under five conditions: baseline (no vibration), vibration of left neck muscles, vibration of right biceps with the arm fixed to the wall, vibration of right biceps with the arm lying on a table, and vibration of right triceps with the arm fixed to the wall. Participants had to align a laser pointer (by verbal instructions) with their perceived SSA position in complete darkness. ANOVA revealed significant SSA shifts with neck and biceps vibrations but not with triceps vibration. The largest leftward SSA shift occurred with right biceps vibration while the arm was lying on the table (-6.1°), followed by left neck muscle vibration (-6.0°), and right biceps vibration with the arm fixed to the wall (-5.4°). Post-hoc power analyses showed high power (> 0.98) for the significant differences compared to the baseline condition. The finding that right biceps vibration affects SSA perception similarly to left neck muscle vibration offers potential for clinical applications in treating spatial neglect. Future research should explore the therapeutic efficacy of vibrating the right biceps in neurological patients with spatial neglect.
振动肌肉以操纵本体感觉输入会产生身体位置明显变化的感觉。本研究调查振动右侧肱二头肌是否与振动左侧颈后肌肉具有相似的效果。基于先前的观察，我们假设两种类型的肌肉振动都会使健康受试者在水平面内的主观向前直线（SSA）方向感知向左偏移。这样的发现对于未来治疗空间忽视（一种右侧中风脑损伤后的疾病）将极具意义。20名健康参与者（11名女性，9名男性，年龄20 - 52岁）在五种条件下接受测试：基线（无振动）、左侧颈部肌肉振动、手臂固定在墙上时右侧肱二头肌振动、手臂放在桌子上时右侧肱二头肌振动以及手臂固定在墙上时右侧肱三头肌振动。参与者必须在完全黑暗中通过口头指令将激光笔与他们感知到的SSA位置对齐。方差分析显示，颈部和肱二头肌振动会导致显著的SSA偏移，而肱三头肌振动则不会。当手臂放在桌子上时，右侧肱二头肌振动导致的向左SSA偏移最大（-6.1°），其次是左侧颈部肌肉振动（-6.0°），以及手臂固定在墙上时右侧肱二头肌振动（-5.4°）。事后功效分析表明，与基线条件相比，显著差异的功效较高（> 0.98）。右侧肱二头肌振动与左侧颈部肌肉振动对SSA感知的影响相似这一发现为治疗空间忽视的临床应用提供了潜力。未来的研究应探索在患有空间忽视的神经患者中振动右侧肱二头肌的治疗效果。
