In her classic book Sensory Integration and the Child: Understanding Hidden Sensory Challenges (revised edition 2005) A Jean Ayres describes proprioception as one of the sensations that tell us where the body is in space and how it is moving.
The word proprioception comes from the Latin proprius meaning 'one's own'. It's all about knowing where we start and finish and the position of our bodies. This comes from information inside us - from the contraction of our muscles and from the stretching, bending, straightening and pulling of the joints between our bones. The information is sent to the brain during movement, but also when we are still, because the muscles and joints are constantly sending information up the spinal cord to the brain to keep us informed of what position we are in.
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