盲人と晴眼者の位置覚についての検討

The difference of position sense between blind and normal sighted person

要旨：位置覚は深部感覚が関与するが，他に表在感覚，筋感覚から成り立っているといわれる．位置覚は空間での四肢の位置を認識したり，外部からの圧迫を感じとり，四肢などの動きを円滑にするときに役立つ．今回晴眼老人と盲老人の肩，肘，手関節の位置覚を測定して，長期の視覚喪失がこれらの関節の位置覚にどのように影響するかについて考えた．結果は，晴眼老人，盲老人とも位置覚は近位の方が遠位より優れていたが，利き手と非利き手で有意に差があるといえず，また盲老人の位置覚が晴眼老人より平均ではいくつかの関節の動きでよかったが，有意に優れているとはいえなかった．

　The sense of position, proprioception is composed of superficial sensation and muscle sensation. An awareness of the position and movement of the extremities, which is derived from recepters in the muscles, tendon, and joints, keep the movements of the limbs smooth. In the present study, we tested the position sense of the upper extremities in the blind elderly and the normal sight elderly in order to elucidate whether the position sense of the blind is better than that of the normal sighted person. The results showed that the position sense of the proximal joint(sholder) was more sensitive compared with that of the distale joint(wrist). However, there was no significant difference in the position sense between the blind elderly and the normal sight elderly.