Adaptive Eating: Sensory Deficits 2
As we saw in part one, when evaluating adaptive eating sensory deficits should be cosidered. In part two we will discuss the Cerebellum, It was recently quantified that the Cerebellum has 80% of the surface area as the cerebral cortex. In addition to inputs from vision, joint position and vestibular input, the Cerebellum also receives information about muscle length and tension through specialized sensory endings called the Muscle Spindle and Golgi Tendon Organ. So a lot is happening there! And we aren’t even aware of it! It would be too much work for the cortex to direct our movements in a totally conscious way. The Cerebellum provides integration of all the somatosenses as well as visual and vestibular integration. The cerebellum then is crucial for functional movement that is generated by the cortex.
Putting it all together: When we are performing the activity of self feeding, there are a lot of sensory inputs that help us perform the task. In fact it would be impossible to successfully bring food to the mouth without the information provided by our sensory system. Vision is important although the activity can be performed without vision. Tactile information is important to know how much force should be exerted to hold the utensil and the location of the utensil in the hand. To accurately direct our movements our conscious and unconscious (cerebellum) need to know where our arm is in space and the amount of muscle force and degree of movement that is occurring during the movement In fact, difficulty with self feeding is rarely due to loss of muscle strength alone. An Occupational Therapist can assess sensation to help guide the process of selecting appropriate adaptive eating aids such as the plate guard below. For more information on this topic please visit Part One of this topic. Thanks for visiting and We also have a concise but thorough Guide To Adaptive Eating Aids which we invite you to visit!
References: Valerie A. Hill, Thomas Fisher, Arlene A. Schmid, Jeffrey Crabtree & Stephen J. Page (2014) Relationship Between Touch Sensation of the Affected Hand and Performance of Valued Activities in Individuals With Chronic Stroke, Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 21:4, 339-346, DOI: 10.1310/tsr2104-339
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Hanna Melchior, Jean-Jacques Vatine & Prof. Patrice L. Weiss (2007) Is there a relationship between light touch-pressure sensation and functional hand ability?, Disability and Rehabilitation, 29:7, 567-575, DOI: 10.1080/09638280600902547
The human cerebellum has almost 80% of the surface area of the neocortex Martin I. Sereno, Jörn Diedrichsen, Mohamed Tachrount, Guilherme Testa-Silva, Helen d’Arceuil, Chris De Zeeuw Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2020, 117 (32) 19538-19543; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002896117