Effects of Peripheral Somatosensory Stimulation Through Mechanical Pressure on Lower Limb Muscle Strength in Stroke Survivors

Somatosensory information is essential for the motor system because when the central nervous system stops receiving afferent signals, it cannot use information about the state of the affected body part to plan or adjust movement. This phenomenon is known as sensory deafferentation, and it significantly affects motor function. This principle offers an opportunity to observe changes in strength through a peripheral proprioceptive stimulus that activates the muscular system with the aim of increasing recruitment. This would justify the implementation of proprioceptive input in approaches focused on motor learning in movement disorders resulting from cortical lesions such as stroke.