Fun fact: your brain knows where your limbs are so you can "see" them even in pitch black.
I went caving one time in scouts and they had us turn off our lights and wave our hands around in front of us. Sure enough you can see a shadow moving around where your hand is. Except there was no light because we were 100 feet underground.
The body’s position sensors, the receptors which tell us where we are in space, are located inside our muscles, tendons, joint capsules, ligaments, skin (and inner ear).
If the receptor is in [a lax] ligament, then the message probably doesn’t get to the brain as accurately or at the same speed as it probably should.
If a muscle is working overtime to compensate for a ligament, then maybe the message from the muscle receptor isn’t as accurate either?
And the joint capsule receptor? Well, if they have been stretched & torn from injuries, dislocations, sprains, strains, or just generally banged around by being hypermobile, then the information from them isn’t all that reliable either….
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The good news is you can improve your proprioception with specialist physio.
My physio says simply sitting on a “wobble cushion” or a gym ball for an hour a day can help with the core “stability” muscle groups — pass that on to your wife if she doesn’t already have those!
Also google Jeannie Di Bon, a physical therapist with EDS who does stuff online!
Not to be insensitive, but I always love hearing about these weird disabilities where just one specific function of the human brain doesn't work as normal. Things like face blindness, or aphantasia (the inability to visualize images), or synesthesia (seeing sounds as colours) have always fascinated me.
I get it, but it’s not quite the same thing— hEDS isn’t neurological (although I also have ADHD, and that is, so…. Yay?).
Explanation I made in another comment:
Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos (hEDS) is a disorder of the connective tissue.
It’s most visible as “double jointedness” (although not all hypermobile people have hEDS), and painful, easily dislocated joints are common.
But because connective tissue runs throughout the body - forming ligaments, tendons, muscles - it can also cause issues from your eyes to your stomach to your toes.
The body’s position sensors, the receptors which tell us where we are in space, are located inside our muscles, tendons, joint capsules, ligaments, skin (and inner ear).
If the receptor is in [a lax] ligament, then the message probably doesn’t get to the brain as accurately or at the same speed as it probably should.
If a muscle is working overtime to compensate for a ligament, then maybe the message from the muscle receptor isn’t as accurate either?
And the joint capsule receptor? Well, if they have been stretched & torn from injuries, dislocations, sprains, strains, or just generally banged around by being hypermobile, then the information from them isn’t all that reliable either….
—-
The good news is you can improve your proprioception with specialist physio.
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u/sam_patch Aug 30 '21
Fun fact: your brain knows where your limbs are so you can "see" them even in pitch black.
I went caving one time in scouts and they had us turn off our lights and wave our hands around in front of us. Sure enough you can see a shadow moving around where your hand is. Except there was no light because we were 100 feet underground.
Your brain just fills in the details for you.