In neuroscience, joint receptors have traditionally been viewed as limit detectors, providing positional information only at extreme joint angles, while muscle spindles are considered the primary sensors of joint angle position. However, joint receptors are widely distributed throughout the joint capsule, and their full role in proprioception remains unclear. In this study, we specifically focused on mimicking Type I joint receptors, which respond to slow and sustained movements, and quantified their proprioceptive potential using a biomimetic joint developed with robotics technology. Results showed that Type I-like joint receptors alone enabled proprioceptive sensing with an average error of less than 2 degrees in both bending and twisting motions. These findings suggest that joint receptors may play a greater role in proprioception than previously recognized and that the relative contributions of muscle spindles and joint receptors are differentially weighted within neural networks during development and evolution. Furthermore, this work may prompt new discussions on the differential proprioceptive deficits observed between the elbows and knees in patients with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type III. Together, these findings highlight the potential of biomimetics-based robotic approaches for advancing interdisciplinary research bridging neuroscience, medicine, and robotics.

翻译：在神经科学中，关节感受器传统上被视为限位探测器，仅在关节角度处于极端位置时提供位置信息，而肌梭则被认为是关节角度位置的主要传感器。然而，关节感受器广泛分布于整个关节囊，其在本体感觉中的完整作用仍不明确。在本研究中，我们特别聚焦于模拟对缓慢且持续运动作出反应的I型关节感受器，并利用机器人技术开发的仿生关节量化了其本体感觉潜能。结果显示，仅凭类I型关节感受器即可实现本体感觉感知，在弯曲和扭转运动中的平均误差小于2度。这些发现表明，关节感受器在本体感觉中的作用可能比先前认识的更为重要，且肌梭与关节感受器的相对贡献在发育和进化过程中于神经网络内被差异化加权。此外，这项工作可能引发对遗传性感觉与自主神经病变III型患者肘部与膝部之间差异性本体感觉缺陷的新讨论。综上所述，这些发现凸显了基于仿生学的机器人方法在推动神经科学、医学与机器人学交叉学科研究中的潜力。