Proprioception Plays a Crucial Role in Bodily Awareness and Motor Control

New research suggests that proprioception, the sense of bodily awareness, plays a vital role in stabilizing and protecting the body, and may even contribute to the emergence of body awareness and motor awareness. A study by researchers at the University of Pavia in Italy found that reduced proprioceptive abilities predict disturbances in body and motor awareness following a right-hemisphere stroke. The study, published in Brain Communications, sheds light on the theoretical implications of proprioception in bodily self-awareness.

Key Takeaways:

• Reduced proprioceptive abilities predict disturbances in body and motor awareness following a right-hemisphere stroke.
• The study found that lesions to the right parietal cortex and underlying white matter tracts are associated with a proprioceptive deficit, which in turn predicts the presence of disturbed sensation of ownership (DSO) and anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP).
• Proprioceptive signals have been hypothesized to contribute to the emergence of body awareness (i.e. sense of ownership) and motor awareness (i.e. sense of agency), but this hypothesis has never been explicitly empirically tested until now.
• The study provides new insights into the role of proprioception in bodily self-awareness and highlights the importance of proprioception in stabilizing and protecting the body.
• The findings have implications for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with neurological disorders that affect proprioception.

Statistics:

• The study tested 46 consecutive patients assessing proprioceptive abilities, disturbed sensation of ownership (DSO), and anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP).
• The research was supported by the European Union and the Next Generation EU.
• The study found that the lesional pattern was further detailed by bilateral disconnections between the temporal and parietal areas associated with decreased proprioceptive ability.

Sources:

• Brain Communications. 2022;7(5): Proprioception as a sensory root for body and motor awareness.
• University of Pavia. 2022: "Proprioceptive signals have been hypothesized to contribute to the emergence of body awareness (i.e. sense of ownership) and motor awareness (i.e. sense of agency)"
• NewsRx. 2022: Study Results from University of Pavia Provide New Insights into Neuroscience (Proprioception as a sensory root for body and motor awareness). Pain & Central Nervous System Week. November 3, 2025; p 1510