Chronic ankle instability affects learning rate during repeated proprioception testing

Individuals who develop a chronic ankle instability (CAI) following injury have been shown to have a number of deficits in physical performance tests of the injured ankle. This study treid to determine whether individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) have lower proprioception sensitivity scores from a test on the Active Movement Extent Discrimination Apparatus (AMEDA) and if they could improve proprioception sensitivity scores

This study has shown that all individuals, whether with CAI or stable ankles, have potential to improve their active proprioceptive acuity with repeated testing on the AMEDA, but those with CAI ankles improve at a slower rate than those with stable ankles. This gain in scores is indicative of a central neurological process of learning, and provides avenues for further investigation of ankle dysfunction, as well as study of potential treatment methods aimed at increased proprioceptive acuity and increased speeds of proprioceptive learning in those with CAI. > From: Witchalls et al., Phys Ther Sport 15 (2014) 106-111. All rights reserved to Elsevier Ltd. 

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