t it does happen. Damage to the nerves from injury or infection can lead to loss of this sense; affected people are unable to tell where their body parts are when they cannot see them (Ian Waterman is one such person). Therefore, developing a better understanding of how proprioception works and what the mechanisms involved are is vital. So, how are visual and proprioceptive inputs assimilated to create this “stored body model”? How do the molecular mechanisms underlying proprioception change as we develop this mental map of our body or as we learn to play the piano? Is Piezo2 expression or function involved in this? It will be interesting to see these questions answered as we get a better sense of proprioception.
- Woo, S-H., Lukacs, V., de Nooij, J.C., Zaytseva, D., Criddle, C.R., Francisco, A., Jessel, T.M., Wilkinson, K.A., Patapoutian, A. (2015) Piezo2 is the principal mechanotransduction channel for proprioception Nature Neuroscience
- Longo, M.R., Haggard, P. (2010) An implicit body representation underlying human position sense PNAS Vol. 107, No. 26
- Blanke, O., Slater, M., Serino, A. (2015) Behavioral, neural and computational principles of bodily self-consciousness Neuron Vol. 88