In all of these activities, you are using proprioceptors in your muscles, tendons, and joints to judge your body's position. Since most of us are highly dependent on visual cues for judging distance, position, etc., proprioception alone is not enough to give us the fine detail of position needed to complete these activities accurately.
Even with our eyes closed, we have a sense of body position—where our arms and legs are, for example, and that we are moving them. Muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear contain proprioceptors, also known as stretch receptors, which relay positional information to our brains. Our brains then analyze this information and provide us with a sense of body orientation and movement.
Activity 1: Find your fingertips#N#Close your eyes and raise both hands above your head. Keep the fingers of your left hand totally still (no wiggling!). With your right hand, quickly touch your index fingertip to your nose, then quickly touch the tip of your thumb of your left hand with the tip of your right index finger. Quickly repeat the entire process while attempting to touch each fingertip (always return to your nose in between fingertip attempts ).#N#Switch hands and try again. How successfully did you locate each fingertip? Did you improve with time? Was there a difference when you used your right versus your left hand?
This Science Snack is part of a collection that highlights Black artists, scientists, inventors, and thinkers whose work aids or expands our understanding of the phenomena explored in the Snack.
Hold a piece of paper against a table top with one hand and hold a pencil in the other. Mark an X on the paper. Next, raise your pencil hand above your head, close your eyes, and make a dot on the paper as near to the X as possible. Open your eyes and check your success.