Almeida José Ramon Gama, Monteiro Luis Carlos Pereira, de Souza Pedro Henrique Castro, Dos Santos Cabral André, Belgamo Anderson, de Athayde Costa E Silva Anselmo, Crisp Alex, Callegari Bianca, Brito Aymee Lobato, Santos Ávila Paulo Eduardo, da Silva José Aparecido, de Nazareth Bastos Gilmara, Souza Givago Silva
Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil.
Instituto de Tecnologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil.
Front Neurosci. 2025 May 13;19:1561241. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1561241. eCollection 2025.
Joint position sense can be assessed using various devices, including inertial sensors embedded in smartphones and wearable technologies. However, the mass of these portable instruments may influence proprioceptive input during joint repositioning tasks.
This study aimed to compare participants' performance in a joint position sense task using a smartphone and an ultra-light wearable sensor to measure elbow angular displacement.
Sixteen adults participated in a passive-active joint position sense test. In this task, participants were required to memorize a passively flexed elbow position and actively reposition the joint across four trials. The angular position during joint repositioning, as well as absolute and relative errors, were compared between trials using a smartphone (weighing several hundred grams) and an ultra-light wearable sensor (weighing only a few dozen grams). Agreement analysis between the devices and reliability assessments for inter-device measurements and for each device were conducted.
No significant variation in the joint angle at the target position was observed across trials using the ultra-light wearable sensor. In contrast, a significant increase in joint angle at the target position was noted when the smartphone was used. Absolute errors were similar between devices, while relative errors showed significant differences in the first two trials. Overall, systematic biases favored the measurements obtained with the smartphone and inter-device reliability were moderate. Smartphone demonstrated moderate-to-good reliability, and the wearable had poor-to-moderate in test-retest evaluation.
Although measurements from the two devices showed agreement, significant systematic biases were observed, favoring the heavier device. Both the smartphone and the wearable sensor provided reliable measurements for assessing elbow joint position sense.
关节位置觉可使用多种设备进行评估，包括嵌入智能手机和可穿戴技术中的惯性传感器。然而，这些便携式仪器的重量可能会在关节重新定位任务期间影响本体感觉输入。
本研究旨在比较参与者在使用智能手机和超轻型可穿戴传感器测量肘关节角位移的关节位置觉任务中的表现。
16名成年人参与了一项被动-主动关节位置觉测试。在该任务中，参与者需要记住一个被动屈曲的肘关节位置，并在四次试验中主动重新定位关节。使用智能手机（重几百克）和超轻型可穿戴传感器（仅重几十克）比较试验期间关节重新定位时的角位置以及绝对误差和相对误差。对设备之间进行一致性分析，并对设备间测量以及每个设备进行可靠性评估。
在使用超轻型可穿戴传感器的试验中，目标位置的关节角度未观察到显著变化。相比之下，使用智能手机时，目标位置的关节角度有显著增加。设备之间的绝对误差相似，而在前两次试验中相对误差显示出显著差异。总体而言，系统偏差有利于使用智能手机获得的测量结果，设备间可靠性为中等。智能手机显示出中等至良好的可靠性，而可穿戴设备在重测评估中的可靠性较差至中等。
尽管两种设备的测量结果显示出一致性，但观察到显著的系统偏差，有利于较重的设备。智能手机和可穿戴传感器都为评估肘关节位置觉提供了可靠的测量结果。
