What is a muscle feeling? Its meaning

Few of us think about the muscular feeling and endow it with exceptional importance. And yet, thanks to him, even closing his eyes, a person unerringly senses in what position his arm is spatially situated - whether it is bent or raised, in which position his body is - whether he is sitting or standing. Such regulation of movements is caused by the work of special proprioceptors located in muscles, articular bags, ligaments, in the skin. Let us consider in more detail what a muscle feeling is.

A special form of cognition

The complex of sensations that arise due to the functioning of the muscular system of the body is called muscle feeling. This concept was introduced by IM Sechenov. The scientist claimed that, for example, when walking a person, it is not only his sensations from the contact of the foot with the surface that are important, but also the so-called muscle sensations that accompany the contraction of the corresponding organs.

The interpretation of the question of what is a muscular feeling was given to Sechenov as a special form of man's cognition of the space-time relations of his environment.

The scientist attached special importance to the muscular sense in the regulation of movements. To him and to his vision he assigned the role of the nearest regulators, thanks to which man is able to compare objects, perform simple operations of analysis and synthesis.

The "dark" feeling

A person's muscular feeling was called "dark" and for a rather long period was not separated from touch, calling both concepts a haptic. So, the psychologist William James emphasized the extreme uncertainty of this concept. Since it is unclear what is at issue - the residual sensations from the posture or movement or some efferent impulses sent by the brain.

In fact, in most cases a person realizes not the work of muscles, but only movement. Sensations experienced when moving, maintaining a certain posture, the tension of the vocal cords or gesticulation, are almost not realized.

Kinesthesia

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the question of what was a muscular feeling was still on the agenda And how to define it. By the neurologist Henry-Charlton Bastian this concept, or, as he wrote, "feelings of movement", it was accepted to express the word "kinestezia".

By kinesteziey understood the ability of the brain to continuously realize the movement and position of the muscles of the body and its various parts. This ability was achieved through proprioceptors, which send impulses to the brain from the joints, tendons, muscles.

In the scientific language, the term entered quite firmly and even gave rise to several derivative concepts, such as kinesthetic empathy, kinesthetic pleasure, kinesthetic imagination, which refers to the release from the usual and normative ways of movement and the ability to create new motor "events."

Proprioceptors

How can we understand what a muscle feeling is?

Awareness of the position and movement of the muscles of the body and its various parts is associated with the work of special proprioceptors - nerve endings located in the musculo-articular apparatus. Their excitation during stretching or contraction of the muscles by impulses is sent to the receptors along nerve fibers in the central nervous system. This allows a person, not controlling their movements with eyesight, to change the position of the body or posture, makes it possible to touch the tip of the nose with an accurate finger movement.

Such signals are very important for the orientation of the body in space. Without them, a person would not be able to carry out any coordinated movement. Muscular feeling in the work of people in such professions as a surgeon, chauffeur, violinist, pianist, draftsman, turner and many others, plays an important role. Special control impulses give them the ability to produce fine and precise movements.

A person, being conscious, constantly feels the passive or active position of his parts of the body and the movement of the joints. They are quite accurately determined resistance to each of their movements. These abilities together are called proprioception, since the stimulation of the corresponding proprioceptors (receptors) does not come from the external environment, but from the body itself. Often they are called deep sensitivity. This is due to the fact that most of the receptors are located in the extracutaneous structures: in the muscles, joints and their capsules, tendons, ligaments, periosteum, fascia.

The musculo-articular feeling, thanks to proprioceptors, allows a person to have a sense of the position of his body in space, as well as a sense of strength and movement. The former is practically not subject to adaptation and carries information about the angle at which a certain joint is at a given moment, and, accordingly, the position of all limbs. The sense of movement makes it possible to realize the direction and speed of movement of the joints. In this case, a person with muscle contraction equally perceives active and passive action. The threshold of perception of movements depends on their amplitude and on the speed of changes in the angle of flexion of the joint.

A sense of strength makes it possible to assess the muscular strength that is necessary for movements or for keeping the joints in a certain position.

The Meaning of Muscle Sensation

For a person, the musculo-articular feeling is of no small importance. It allows you to correctly find objects and determine the position of the body in space with closed eyes. Muscular feeling helps to determine the mass and volume of objects, perform a delicate analysis of movements, their coordination. Its significance especially increases with the fall of vision or its loss.

Violation of the musculo-articular feeling, Dysfunction of the motor analyzer leads to the fact that a person loses the accuracy of movements. His gait becomes shaky and uncertain, he loses his balance. In people with similar impairments, when oriented in space, the function of the so-called nearest regulator takes over the vision.

Muscular feeling in a state of weightlessness

Muscular feeling in humans in space flights is absent. In a state of weightlessness, in which the force of interaction of bodies with the support is absent, the orientation of spatial relations is perceived through visual perception and visual evaluation.

The experience of orbital flights and the access to the unsupported space of astronauts showed that man is able to adapt to conditions so unusual for him. Between the senses he has other relationships. The main importance is acquired by tactile, musculo-articular sensations, vision, a little less influence is attributed to the signaling from the side of the otolith device. Such a functional analyzer system is not very stable.

In the future flights of cosmonauts and their further distance in unsupported space, the possibility of disorientation and spatial illusions is not ruled out. That is why the problem of human orientation in outer space is quite urgent.